FIRST AMERICAN IMPORTATIONS 265 



mals imported were true to their respective types, 

 pedigrees and purity of blood were held by the prac- 

 tical seekers after bovine excellence in those days 

 in complete subordination to fleshing and milking 

 capacity. Actual value for practical use was the 

 test of good breeding, and so while many of the 

 descendants of these imported Shorthorns were kept 

 pure and free from admixture of other blood, there 

 was more or less cross-breeding practiced. 



Mr. Clay placed his Heref ords in the capable 

 hands of Isaac Cunningham, owner of one of the 

 largest and best grass farms in Kentucky at that 

 date, and a man of wealth and influence, possessing 

 many good cows of the Patton blood. While for 

 the most part loyal Shorthorn breeders, Mr. Cun- 

 ningham and his contemporaries utilized the Here- 

 ford blood for crossing purposes, and certain of the 

 local herds of "Durhams" were thus "infected" 

 as it was afterwards regarded by those who owned 

 English-bred Shorthorns with the Hereford "al- 

 loy." Yet the percentage of Hereford blood to 

 Shorthorn blood in use in Kentucky for a long series 

 of years following this importation was as a drop 

 in a full bucket, and as no additional Hereford blood 

 was introduced into the state for many years after, 

 it is not strange that the "white face" was soon 

 merged with and altogether lost its identity in the 

 broad Shorthorn stream that soon swallowed it up. 



Looking back over a long series of years after 

 this early Kentucky experiment with Hereford 

 blood, Mr. Clay wrote to Hon. Henry S. Randall, 



