24 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



are admirable grazier s cattle, and are best adapted to regions where there is a great abund 

 ance of the best pasturage, being a heavy breed, although they will thrive on coarser and less 

 food than the Short-Horns, and are also considered by many as more hardy than the latter.. 

 When well fattened, they make most excellent beef, their bodies being compact, level, and 

 massive, while they take on flesh very rapidly. 



Professor Lowe says of them: &quot;They have the orange-yellow color of the skin which 

 distinguishes the Pembrokes and the Devons, and that medium length of horns which separate 

 these breeds and their varieties from the race termed Long-horned. It cannot be supposed 

 that they have been kept free from intermixture with the Long-horned and other varieties of 

 the lower country, but they may be referred to that group of breeds which comprehends the 

 Pembroke, the Devon, the Sussex, and the Glamorgan, and which some writers have proposed 

 to term Middle-horned, a designation which distinguishes them from the Long-horned on the 

 one hand, and the Short-horned on the other. 



But whatever the character of the former cattle of Herefordshire, the breed as it 

 now exists owes all of its reputation to modern changes. About the year 1766 the late Mr. 

 Benjamin Tomkins began a system of breeding which ultimately exercised a great influence 

 on the stock of this part of England. It appears that size, and adaptation to the dairy and 

 the purpose of labor, were then the properties chiefly sought for by the breeders of Hereford 

 shire. Mr. Tomkins, when a young man, was in the employ of an individual, afterwards 

 his father-in-law, and had the especial charge of the dairy. Two cows had been brought to 

 this dairy, supposed to have been purchased at the fair at Kington, on the confines of Wales. 

 Tomkins remarked the extraordinary tendency of these animals to become fat. On his 

 marriage he acquired these two cows, and commenced breeding from them on his own 

 account. The one with more of white he called Pigeon, and the other, of a rich red color 

 with a spotted face, he called Mottle ; and it is remarkable that the marking of the two cows 

 may be distinguished in their descendants at the present day. Mr. Tomkins appears to have 

 selected good cows where he could obtain them in the district, but to have reared his bulls 

 from his own stock, although, in the earlier stage of his improvements, he sometimes made 

 use of other bulls when they suited his purpose. After a time, however, he abandoned the 

 practice, and confined himself in breeding to his own stock. It thus appears that the prin 

 ciple of his system was selection of the most suitable individuals for breeding, and that having 

 produced, by this means, animals of the properties required, he confined himself to his own 

 herd. Having arrived at the improvement sought for, he communicated to the individuals, 

 by intermixture with one another, that uniformity and permanence of character which con 

 stitute a breed.&quot; 



This valuable breed of cattle are at present more numerous in the &quot;Western and Middle 

 States especially the former than in the Eastern or Southern, but their great merit causes 

 them to be highly prized wherever they have been introduced. 



Description. The Herefords of a century ago were described as a deep red, or 

 brown in color, with mottled faces. Some of the best specimens of the breed were mottled or 

 roan throughout. The improved Hereford of to-day has a white face, sometimes, though rarely, 

 slightly mottled, white throat and belly, while the white usually extends from the top of the 

 head back on the neck, and occasionally, though not commonly, continuing along the back. 

 The remaining part of the body, except, perhaps, a portion of the legs, is generally of a dark 

 red color, although sometimes a light red. The ears are usually red, the forehead broad ; eyes 

 bright and mild in expression, horns slender and spreading, head of medium size, though 

 larger and not quite as clean as that of the Devon; chest deep; hips well developed and 

 level with the back; hind quarters long and well rounded; buttock on a level with the back; 

 hair soft and fine; body round and full, and well formed; in fact, their general form resembles 

 that of the Devon so closely that a definite description seems unnecessary. 



