120 THE CATTLE OP GREAT BRITAIN. 



medals. This and other circumstances combined to render the 

 number of exhibits there less important than at one time was 

 anticipated, breeders generally preferring the more substantial 

 awards of money offered at their state and county fairs. But 

 the excellence of the specimens exhibited at the International 

 Exhibition rivetted the attention of many of the distant stock 

 owners who assembled there, and the correctness of the 

 opinion expressed by the judges at the close of their report, that 

 " they will soon occupy a foremost rank among the herds of the 

 United States," has been very quickly verified. Such has been 

 the demand for Here fords during the past eight years that 

 many hundreds have annually been imported into the United 

 States and Canada. The altogether unprecedented demand for 

 them for America so popularised the breed at home that 

 previously unheard-of prices have been realised for them. The 

 value of the pure-bred Hereford bull upon the grade cows of the 

 Far West having been fully established, a large trade has been 

 done by the breeders in the Eastern States, whose extensive 

 herds of imported Herefords have quite supplanted the more 

 inferior herds that formerly grazed upon their pastures. 

 Purity of blood, as proved by reference to the Hereford Herd 

 Book, having been made a sine qua non by purchasers on this 

 side, numerous breeders who had previously not only refrained 

 from entering their animals, but even ridiculed the value 

 attached to pedigree, suddenly became impressed with its value 

 and the importance of registering their herds ; for this purpose 

 their memories were severely taxed, memorandums, long since 

 discarded, were anxiously searched after, that they might be 

 enabled to so trace the pedigrees as to qualify them for entry in 

 succeeding volumes of the Herd Book. Whilst that state of 

 things prevailed on this side the breeders on the other side, 

 with Mr. Miller for their guide, resolved to establish an 

 " American Hereford Record," and under that title the first 

 volume of their Hereford Herd Book was published in 1880. 

 Three other volumes have since been issued.* The work is 



* It is only common justice to Mr. Dnckham's good work to state that 

 the first Vol. of the American Herd Book contains his portrait, with a very 

 complimentary notice of his labours in promoting the interests of the 

 Hereford breeders. — Ed. 



