196 



FARMERS' REGISTER— HEREFORD BREED. 



IV. The Hereford breed is a variety of the De- 

 von and Sussex, but is larger and weightier than 

 either; being generally wider and tuller over the 

 shoulders or chine, and the breast, or brisket, as 

 well as the after part of the rump. The prevail- 

 ing color a reddish brown, v.-ith white faces; the 

 hair fine, and the skin thin. 



In the true bred Hereford cattle there is no pro- 

 jecting bone in the point of the shoulder, which m 

 sonic breeds forms almost a shelf, against which 

 the collar rests, but on tlie contrary tapers off; they 

 have a great breadth before, and are equally 

 weighty in their hind quarters; the tail not set on 

 high; a gTeat distance from the point of the rump 

 to the hip bone; the twist full, broad, and soft; the 

 thigh of the fore legs to the pastern joint tapering 

 and full, not thin, but thin below the joint; the horn 

 pushes aside a little, and then turns up thin and 

 tapering; remarkably well libeling; mellow on the 

 rump, ribs, and hip bone. The quality of the meat 

 not hard, but fine as well as fat; little coarse flesh 

 about them, the offal and bone being small in pro- 

 portion to their weight; whilst their disposition to 

 fatten is equal, or nearly so, to that of any other 

 breed in the island. They are, hovvever, ill calcu- 

 lated lor the dairy; their constitutional disposition 

 to accumulate flesh being in opposition to the quali- 

 ties of good milking cows, — an obsei-vation which 

 will equally apply to everj^ breed, when similarh' 

 constituted. A breed of cattle equally adapted to 



the shambles, the dairy, and the plough, is indeed 

 not to be met with, and experience teaches thai 

 these properties are inconsistent with each other. 

 The Hereford cattle are by memy good judges con- 

 sidered to approach the nearest to that perfect state 

 of any of the large breeds: they arrive early at 

 maturity, and are fit for labor; but it is as tatting 

 stock that they excel, and it is a different variety 

 of the same breed that is preferi'ed for the dairy. 

 There is, indeed, a more extraordinary dispropor- 

 tion between the weight of Herefordshire cows, 

 and that of the oxen bred from them, than is to be 

 found in any other of the superior breeds: they are 

 comparatively small, extremely delicate, and light 

 fleshed; and it is said that they are notunfrequent- 

 ly the mothers of oxen nearly three times their 

 own weight.* 



On comparison -with the Devon and Sussex, the 

 Hereford breed will probably not be found equally 

 active and hardy in the yoke; but it is generally 

 considered to exceed them in the quality of fatten- 

 ing;! find when compared with any one breed, it 

 may fairly rank at least among the very best in the 

 United Iiino;dom. 



* See the Agricultural Survey of Herefordshire, p. 

 118, and a Paper by T. A. Knight, Esq., in Communi- 

 cations to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. II. 



t See Chapter II. 





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V. The Short Horned Cattle, under which de- 1 Holderness, and Tees-water breeds, are supposed 

 nomination are indiscriminately included the D«/c/!, to have acrj^uired the appellation of Dutch, from a 



