752 A HISTORY OF SHORT-HORN CATTLE. 



Luther Adams' importations. In the au- 

 tumn of 1886 Mr. Luther Adams of Boston, 

 Mass., who owned a large farm at Storm Lake, 

 la., commissioned Mr. William Miller to pro- 

 ceed to Scotland and select for his account a 

 shipment of the best young cattle obtainable. 

 Miller was admirably qualified for the work. 

 As we have already seen, he belonged to a fam- 

 ily that had been identified from an early period 

 with the importing and breeding trade of Can- 

 ada. As a young man he had bought cattle and 

 sheep in Great Britain; and his long and inti- 

 mate connection with the live-stock interests of 

 North America had given him an experience, 



purchased this estate, but whether the actual details had been carried 

 through or not we are unable to say. 



" It was August, 1876, in the Valley of the Severn, under the shadow of the 

 Cotswold Hills, that the writer first met Hope. From that day a chain of 

 unbroken friendship that had to stand the strain of many a gale remained 

 unbroken. In 1877 or 1878 Hope went to Bow Park as manager of the herd 

 then one of the largest and most valuable in the world, and in 1879 I joined 

 him at that place. Bow Park was not a financial success. It was started 

 when the Short-horn business was on the wane. Here it was, however 

 that John Hope became a great force in trans- Atlantic agriculture. Many 

 an object lesson he gave on the farm amid the stately oaks that surmount 

 the homestead at Bow Park. There he was at his best. The fever of strong 

 prejudices was laid away, and before you was the animal. Ah! how he 

 loved to look at them. When the show cows were let out from their shady 

 boxes at sundown to graze in the cool night air then came Hope's enjoy- 

 ment. As the artist loves his picture, the huntsman his hound, the mother 

 her child, so the idol of our friend was the Short-horn cow. For years it 

 was the Alpha and Omega of his existence. Latterly, when a happy mar- 

 riage came across his path, and a beautiful family to cluster round him, the 

 old love was dimmed a little, but the virgin fires still blazed, and no later 

 than the great show of cattle at the World's Fair Hope was there as in- 

 tensely interested as ever. In the show-yard he had phenomenal success. 

 Will the present race of American cattlemen ever forget Duke of Clarence 

 4th, the Clarence Kirklevington, and the herd of cows and heifers which a 

 few years ago swept like a cyclone through the show-yards of the States 

 and Canada? As an exhibitor Hope was a strong partisan, and in the pecu- 

 liar politics of an American show-ring he was an adept. Long years of ex- 



