420 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



Hereford Park. When in business as a young 

 man in the Wabash Valley Mr. Culbertson had fre- 

 quent occasion to ride horseback through central 

 Indiana and Illinois, and in Douglas county he 

 noted a body of land that at once commended itself 

 to his judgment. Early as the day then was, he 

 foresaw the future that awaited these "broad 

 lands " now teeming with their wealth of corn, cat- 

 tle and grass, and he " entered " what was then the 

 nucleus of the estate afterwards famous as Hereford 

 Park. Among his earliest acts and one which yield- 

 ed a thousand-fold return, timber being rather 

 scarce on the place, was the planting of a 15-acre 

 grove of walnuts. The main farmhouse and barns, 

 as well as this grove, were centrally located, the 

 land rising gradually to the north. In selecting this 

 spot for barns, sheds and feedlots advantage was 

 taken of the southern exposure, as well as of a nat- 

 ural amphitheater sloping in all directions south- 

 ward to a central point, where an ample pool such 

 as stockmen usually used in those days afforded an 

 abundant water supply. The various pastures were 

 so arranged that they cornered at or near the feed- 

 lots and the walnut grove, the former affording 

 shelter from storms in winter and the latter a grate- 

 ful shade in the hot summer months. The barns 

 were models of convenience, evincing the practical 

 bent of the proprietor's mind. 



Mr. Culbertson had for some years been an ex- 

 tensive feeder of cattle for market and had accumu- 

 lated a good herd of grade Shorthorn cows, some 



