CHAPTER XVII. 

 FIRST HEREFORDS ON THE RANGE. 



It is now impossible either to fix definitely the 

 date when the Herefords made their first appear- 

 ance upon the western range or to locate accurately 

 the place where the earliest experiments in pas- 

 tures limited only by the horizon were really staged. 

 However, it may be stated with reasonable certainty 

 that the time was somewhere near 1870, and the 

 place Colorado. It can also be safely recorded that 

 the initial buying was cautiously approached by 

 men who had no assurance whatever that the ven- 

 ture would prove successful. But it did. Had it 

 not, this volume might never have been published. 



In a letter written by Mr. T. L. Miller in 1877 the 

 statement is made that "it is now ten or twelve 

 years since the Herefords were first taken to the 

 plains, ' ' but he gives no names or dates. This would 

 place the period of their introduction at from 1867 

 to 1869. It is of course easily possible that some of 

 the old Stone, the Ohio or early eastern blood had 

 found its way west at that time. In fact we should 

 think this extremely probable. The state of Colo- 

 rado, being in the direct line of cornbelt emigration, 

 would naturally be one of the first to receive the 

 blood of improved cattle of eastern origin. The 

 Texans of that day bought almost exclusively from 

 Kentucky, and as that state, at that period, had no 



