SOME HISTORIC KENTUCKY STOCK. 293 



high condition. No portrait was ever made 

 of him in his prime, but about six months be- 

 fore his death, when he was very low in flesh, 

 Mr. John R. Page of New York executed an oil 

 "painting of him, from a copy of which the pic- 

 ture in this volume has been prepared. 



George M.Bedford's lease of "The Duke." 

 As one of the original demonstrators of the 

 Duke of Airdrie's outstanding value as a sire, 

 some account of George M. Bedford's career 

 as a breeder will be of interest. He began 

 about 1828 with the Long-horns and other 

 crosses, together with some Patton stock. In 

 1838 he purchased at Gen. Garrard's sale the 

 "Seventeen" bull Eclipse, for which he paid 

 the sum of $688.* In 1842 Mr. Bedford ac- 

 quired an interest in the cow Rosabella, out of 

 imp. Rose by Skipton, which, bred to Sir Al- 

 fred 969 (he by Rose of Sharon's only son Par- 



and Cunningham. The General was perhaps the tallest breeder of Short- 

 horns north of the Ohio River at this time. On visiting the stalls the own- 

 ers were not present, but the herdsman led out Challenger for the big 

 " Hoosier's " examination. While thus engaged one of the Vanmeters, who 

 himself was perhaps over six feet tall, came up and patiently waiting till 

 the General was through and had ordered the bull back to his stall ap- 

 proached and said: "Well, stranger, you have given him a close look; 

 what do you think of him? " The General had admired the bull in many of 

 his points, and after mentioning these concluded by saying that he thought 

 the bull was " rather too high from the ground." Mr. Vanmeter, looking up 

 at the towering Indianian, said: " Well, sir, I think you are the last man on 

 the ground that should find that objection to the bull." 



* At this same sale Hon. B J Clay and Mr Hutchcraft paid $1,830 for the 

 bull Exception (374), which Mr Bedford considered the best "Seventeen" 

 he ever saw. Indeed, upon being asked in his later years how Exception 

 would compare with the best Short-horns of the present, he answered.- 

 "Well, sir, .1 should have to call him a good bull even now." 



