AS MILKERS AND AS WORK-OXEN 121 



handsome and fine grazing breed. This herd was established 

 in 1819 by the present owner's grandfather, and there is a 

 fair prospect of its going on. The cows are of a uniform 

 type, large, and in high condition (though only moderately 

 kept) ; and lastly, and of the most consequence, they are 

 evidently good milkers, and have very well-shaped udders. 

 Amongst the herd was a grand old cow, sixteen years old 

 (' Prettyface '), from which many had sprung : she is, or 

 rather was, an enormous milker. Your judges had much 

 pleasure, mixed with surprise, at having to award a ' Dairy 

 prize to a Hereford herd.' Extraordinary milking Hereford 

 cows have appeared from time to time in the leading herds, 

 and only care in selection is needed to in time develop 

 milking tendencies of a high order." 



The main object for which the breed was kept till well 

 into the nineteenth century was the supply of work-oxen 

 for land cultivation. 



The type of cow to breed the best oxen was small and 

 slender or feminine in character, and not more than about 

 one-third of the weight of the mature ox, which grew to an 

 immense size in height and bulk. A large cow, of masculine 

 character and heavily loaded with flesh, produced a coarse 

 and brawny ox which proved " unkindly and tedious in the 

 process of fattening." Common work-oxen were, Marshall 

 says, wastefully fed off about six years old in Gloucestershire. 

 But as in the case of a present-day continental practice of 

 killing milch cows when about a year or two older, it may 

 have been after all economical owing to the greater value of 

 the beef then produced than at a later period. The finest 

 oxen were sold up to 70, and could be kept for effective work 

 till twice or three times that age. 



The chief function of the Hereford of the present day, 

 viz., the production of the finest quality of grass-fed beef, was 

 during the eighteenth century quite a secondary considera- 

 tion. It was only during the latter years of it that breeding- 

 cattle began to be recognised in the prize lists at local 

 agricultural shows. In certain parts of Gloucestershire and 

 the surrounding district, Hereford bullocks are kept as work 

 animals, and though used mostly in cultivating they are 

 occasionally employed on the farm in the cart. Earl 

 Bathurst still uses a few selected Herefords in the working 



