FIRST AMERICAN IMPORTATIONS 263 



father) procured a bull and heifer from a Mr. Rin- 

 gold, an importer of English cattle, either of Mary- 

 land or Virginia. They were called the Carey cattle. 

 They were pied red and white, were rather small, 

 light-fleshed, raw-boned stock, and had no claims to 

 merit only for milking qualities. They were good 

 milkers. ' ' 



While the above letter in its entirety is of gen- 

 eral interest, the reference to the bull Mars is es- 

 pecially significant. It will be observed that he is 

 described as "a deep red, with a white face, of good 

 size, of round full form, of more bone than the popu- 

 lar stock of the present day, his horns somewhat 

 coarse, " etc. That might be a description of a 

 Hereford of that period, and as he was bought and 

 used by the Pattons, who introduced the first im- 

 proved blood into Kentucky, it may be that a Here- 

 fordshire cross entered into some of these founda- 

 tion herds. The Longhorn blood was freely used. 

 That has been a well recognized fact for many years. 

 Nevertheless, the Shorthorn or Durham blood pre- 

 dominated strongly in the Patton cattle, and this 

 preponderance became an overwhelming percentage 

 after the importation and use of the cattle soon 

 afterwards brought direct from England into Ken- 

 tucky by Col. Lewis Sanders. 



Henry Clay's Importation of 1817. In 1816 

 Hon. Henry Clay, of Lexington, Ky., was in Eng- 

 land. In common with other public-spirited Ken- 

 tuckians of that day he was anxious to assist in 

 every possible way in developing the natural re- 



