FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 223 



Fortunately I am able to present you with some facts corroborative of this 

 position, from some dairy districts in England, where the llerofords have been 

 used for dairy purposes for a long time. 



Mr. Eead, of Elkstone, writes : '' They have been used for more than half a 

 century on this farm, and I believe they yield a larger return than could be ob- 

 tained from any other breed on a simihir class of land." lie adds : " We rear 

 our calves by hand after a few days old." 



Mr. Bennett, of North Gerny, writes confirming Mr. Kead's opinion, and 

 adds " that during his thirty years' experience he has tried cross-bred (Here- 

 fords and Shorthorns), but that lie did not find them as valuable as the pure 

 bred.'' 



Mr. Nappowder, of Blandford, writes : " Our herd of Herefords have been 

 established for forty years, and so far from having degenerated with us, they 

 have much improved, and Hereford dairies are becoming very common in this 

 county." 



"In proof that they are good for milk with us, we let one hundred cows to 

 dairy people, and if I buy one of any other breed to fill up the dairy, they al- 

 ways grumble, and would rather have one of our own bred heifers.'' 



From Cornwall Mr. Lobb writes : " For the first fifteen years of my farming 

 I kept North Devons; for the past twenty-seven, Herefords." After detailing 

 much about their merits, as compared with tlie Devons, he adds: "Hereford 

 cows are generally said to be bad milkers. Tiiat is contrary to my experience, 

 and I feel persuaded, when such is tlie case, it does not arise from any constitu- 

 tional defect, but rather from mismanagement in raising or a deficiency in the 

 constituents of their food, essential to the production of milk." 



" My cow ' Patience' has this summer given 14 lbs. of butter per week, and 

 'Blossom' gave 22 quarts of milk, yielding 2^ lbs. of butter per day." 



Mr. Gilliland, of Londonderry, Ireland, to whom I have already referred in 

 regard to their aptitude to fatten, says about their milking qualities : 



"I have not used tliem much in tlie dairy, but whenever I have, the milk 

 has been found to be very superior in quality."' 



His farm agent says: "I do not dairy except for private use, but I have 

 found that eight quarts of Hereford's milk are equal to twelve of Avrshire or 

 Irish." 



The question very naturally arises here, why, if the Herefords are the superior 

 breed you claim them to be, and have been so long and so well known, 

 and so popular in England and other countries — why they have not been more 

 generally adopted in this? 



How comes it that the Shorthorns have hitherto been most the popular cattle 

 with feeders and breeders in this country? The admirers of this breed are prac- 

 tical men, men of sense, and men, too, who are after the profits to be made in 

 raising and feeding stock, and why is it that your Herefords have not been 

 more generally adopted among farmers? 



To answer these questions, which are legitimate and fair, would require a 

 more detailed history of the early introduction of the two breeds into this coun- 

 try, and also the circumstances attending the show made by traveling the 

 Shorthorn steer and heifer, bred by the brothers Charles and Ivobert Colling, 

 all over England, from 1801 to 1807. Into this I will not now enter. It is one 

 of the enigmas I will leave you to wrestle with. In the National Live Stock 

 Journal, of Chicago, for December, you will fina much light let in on this sub- 

 ject, from the luminous pen of T. L. Miller, of that State, s 



