88 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



still called by some old Herefordshire breeders the 

 best cow they ever saw, swept all opposition at the 

 Royal and the Bath and West of England shows. 



The Sir David and Sir Benjamin bulls had be- 

 come the fashion of the time and indeed fairly in- 

 troduced the modern Hereford. They were dis- 

 tinguished for scale and prepotency, and the blood 

 found its way into nearly every contemporary herd 

 of importance. A good illustration of the vigor of 

 the breed in those days is afforded by a case where 

 one of Mr. Rea's neighbors, Mr. J. B. Green of 

 Marlow,* sent a very old cow of Jeffries blood, Gov- 

 erness by name, and full twenty years of age, to be 

 bred to Sir Benjamin. The result was a pair of 

 twin bulls Zeal (2342) and Zealous (2349), the lat- 

 ter resembling Sir Benjamin very much in size and 

 general character. All Marlow cattle imported to 

 America in later years were big ones. 



The Worcester Eoyal and the Monaughty disper- 

 sion sale of 1863 gave a wonderful impetus to what 

 we may call the Middle Period of English Hereford 

 history, sometimes called "the Sir Benjamin era." 

 Undoubtedly this sale had a great effect in stirring 

 up the energy and the interest of the Hereford 

 breeders. The Monaughty herd had been a favor- 



*"Joe" Green, as he was commonly called, was a fine old sports- 

 man, and had a somewhat novel method of selling his young 

 bulls. For years he offered them at about 12 months old at a 

 uniform price of 30 guineas. As there were usually about 20 of 

 them, his first customers had a wide range of selection. This 

 practice, by the way, had a counterpart in the west years ago 

 in the famous old-time Shorthorn herd of the late Hon. John 

 Wentwofth of Chicago, who had a fixed price of $100 per head 

 upon his bull calves no matter what their breeding, color or in- 

 dividual character. 



