744 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



had been attained during the wild period of specu- 

 lation that had previously prevailed. 



Hereford Hardiness Hereditary .-^The breed that 

 passed through this harsh experience so success- 

 fully presents an interesting study in heredity the 

 persistent transmission of ancestral qualities, even 

 after the lapse of generations. The Hereford of 

 old Herefordshire, the Hereford of a century and 

 a half ago, was bred for the yoke. He was not 

 reared in the lap of luxury. He was not pampered. 

 His was a life of plain living and heavy hauling. 

 No corn and little cake entered into his rations. He 

 tilled the fields of his owner, subsisted mainly on 

 grass, and often worked hard till more than ten 

 years old. Beef-making as a business prior to the 

 time of Tomkins the Younger did not enter specially 

 into the calculation. What this did for the Here- 

 fordshire cattle may be read today in those heavy 

 shoulders and broad chests, those legs and muscles 

 that enable them to tramp the range and win their 

 way through storm and stress and drouth and heat 

 and cold, traversing distances that are hopeless to 

 most cattle of other improved breeds, and through 

 it all maintaining fair condition.* 



*Will C. Barnes, author of "Western Grazing- Grounds," speak- 

 ing of the superior hardiness of the Hereford says: "Range cat- 

 tle with considerable infusions of Shorthorn blood are never quite 

 so hardy as the old stock, and in the early spring when the heel 

 flies are about they seem to delight in finding the worst bog 

 holes. Once down they often lose all pluck and grit, and where 

 a Hereford would fight her way out to hard ground the cow with 

 the infusion of Shorthorn blood is apt to give up after the first 

 struggle. Even when dragged out by the bog rider she may make 

 no effort to get to her feet, but will lie there and starve, losing 

 herself and her calf to the owner. On the other hand, the long-- 

 horn or Hereford when thus dragged out will, if she has a single 

 spark of life left in her, get to her feet some way and chase 

 her rescuer off the range." 



