CHAPTER Til. 



THE HEREFORD BREED OF CATTLE. 



By T. DUCKHAM. 



HE HEEEFOEDS are an aboriginal race of cattle 

 indigenous to the soil of the county from whence 

 they take their name. Yet experience has proved 

 that the exercise of sound judgment in making 

 selections for breeding purposes is alone requisite to ensure the 

 success of those who breed them in almost every known climate. 

 They are of the middle-horn tribe, and have for ages past been 

 highly esteemed for their fine quality of flesh, which, by the 

 ntermixture of fat and lean, presents that marbled appearance 

 so much prized by the epicure, and commands a* top price in the 

 market. The rapidity with which they lay on fat is certainly 

 unsurpassed, if equalled. Experimental trials have been made 

 with them and selected specimens of other pure breeds, which 

 have ended in the uniform result that they yield the best return 

 to the grazier for the food consumed. The value of the cattle 

 of the district has been noticed by different writers for many 

 centuries past. Speed, in his history of the county, says : 

 " The county's climate is most healthful and temperate, and 

 soyle so fertile for corn and cattle that no place in England 

 yieldeth more or better conditioned." 



The principal herds are in the hands of the tenant farmers of 

 Hereford and adjoining counties, and have been handed down 

 generation after generation from father to son in all their 

 purity. The steers are looked upon as the rent-payers of the 

 district, and perhaps no finer sight of cattle can be seen in the 

 kingdom than that of the Hereford October fair, where several 



