36 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



more than ten! And so it is probable that those 

 who were thus unwittingly laying wide and deep the 

 foundations for the vigor of the modern Hereford, 

 selected the largest, widest-chested, most athletic 

 types of bulls for breeding purposes, steadily in- 

 creasing the size of their cattle as compared with 

 the sturdy little "rubies" of North Devon.* 



A white breed of cattle with red ears, that was 

 evidently accounted superior to the old black moun- 

 tain sort, had long existed in Wales, and it is prob- 

 able that this proximity accounts for the original 

 introduction of white markings among the Here- 

 fordshire reds. The blending of the blood of those 

 two self-colored races would surely produce broken 

 colors, and during the formative period of the mod- 

 ern Hereford type, brockle-faced cattle liberally 

 splashed with white were in frequent evidence. In- 

 deed a bitter controversy raged at one time between 

 the advocates of the "brockle faces" and the 

 "white faces" as to which was the superior 

 "breed." 



A direct introduction of the "bald-face" seems 

 to have been made about 1671 through the medium 

 of an importation of Flemish cattle by Lord Scuda- 

 more. The herds of the Low Countries did not al- 

 ways run so strongly towards the black and white 

 color now so commonly associated with Dutch cattle. 



*The Devon breed, doubtless refined far beyond its ancestral 

 type, still holds its popularity in its native land, and although 

 small as compared with most of our other improved beef breeds, 

 is yet highly prized by butchers as well as by those who still 

 use oxen at the yoke. 



