DEDICATION. 5 



When the Indian and the buffalo disappeared from 

 the great grassy west and cattle claimed the open 

 range, the Hereford's real hour in America had 

 struck, and not before. The world's grazing breed 

 par excellence quickly found there a congenial home. 

 And when cornbelt farmers began turning to the 

 range for cattle to fill their feedyards, then, but not 

 until then, were the necessary conditions for a wide 

 extension of Hereford breeding in America pre- 

 sented. In the following pages we shall endeavor to 

 trace the trail from its earliest beginnings down to 

 the present time, including such account of the 

 origin and development of the type in Hereford- 

 shire, England, as may seem essential to the intel- 

 ligent reading of American records. 



The long and successful career of another great 

 English breed, the Shorthorn, more particularly as 

 relating to its rise and progress in America, has 

 already been sketched by the writer in a previous 

 volume. While we have to do in the following 

 pages with the Hereford alone, a close acquaintance 

 with both breeds has supplied such convincing 

 proofs of the special merits of each that I can only 

 write of one with due appreciation of the other. 

 It will be understood, therefore, that this volume 

 is prepared in no partisan sense. This is not an 

 effort to exploit Herefords at the expense of other 

 good breeds. 



Some who might have supplied additional and 

 perhaps more accurate information concerning men 

 and events of the "auld lang syne" have failed to 



