JUDGING LIVE STOCK. (55 



with him were Win. Galliers, of Wigmore Grange, with whom 

 he was intimately associated in social and business relations; 

 and the Tully Bros., of Huntington, Clyro, and Haywood, Mr. 

 Skyrune, of Stretton, and Messrs. Haywood, of Clifton-on- 

 Teure. All these men were breeders of improved cattle 

 which were very similar in general character to those of 

 Mr. Tomkins. 



Benjamin Tomkins, Jr., was born in 1745, grew up on his 

 father's farm, and was associated with him in his breeding 

 operations until 1769, when he began breeding for himself, 

 with stock drawn from his father's herd, and while no rec- 

 ords are available, it appears probable that he also utilized 

 blood from the herds of his father's contemporaries. He bred 

 for individual merit, entirely disregarding color (which varied 

 much at this time), and by his energy and good judgment, 

 not only improved the breed in a marked degree, but also 

 brought the breed into favorable public notice so much so 

 that he is sometimes accredited as the founder of the breed. 

 He retired from business in 1812, and died in 1815. His herd 

 was dispersed in 1819, at good prices. 



John Price, of Ryall, was Benjamin Tomkins' greatest 

 follower. He became acquainted with the Tomkins stock 

 in 1804, and bought a few cows from Benjamin Tomkins, Jr., 

 at this time. He crossed these with a bull from another 

 herd, but the results were unsatisfactory, and he returned to 

 Tomkins, bought freely from him, and bred almost purely 

 from the Tomkins blood until his death. This gives a total 

 of seventy years that the Tomkins stock was bred without 

 outcrosses, and the only explanation of such apparently in- 

 tense breeding lies in the fact that five distinct strains ex- 

 isted at the start. Price, like Bakewell, took the Highland 

 Scots as his model, and sought to produce a Hereford of 

 greater scale than the Scotch Kylve, but of the same sym- 

 metrical, loggy form, with similar coats and texture of flesh. 

 He effected marked improvement on the Tomkins stock by 

 reducing the coarseness of hips and broadening the chine by 

 an increased spring of rib. He followed Tomkins in prac- 

 ticing inbreeding to a considerable extent, and, like him, he 

 was energetic in bringing the good points of the Hereford to 

 public notice. He won prizes in competition with other breeds, 

 and on one occasion offered to show a picked number of his 

 cattle against an equal number of any breed in Britain for a 



