24 



HISTOKY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



principal graziers in the counties near the me- 

 tropolis, and then perfected for the London 

 market." I have introduced Mr. Duncomb at 

 this point, as it is fair to presume that his 

 statement may refer to the past as well as to 

 his own time. 



Mr. Henry Haywood (fl 14), of Blakemere 

 House, Hereford, informed Messrs. McDonald 

 and Sinclair (editors of a history of Herefords, 

 published in 1886) that in the division of John 

 Hay wood's property in 1713, he especially re- 



WELLINGTON (4) 160, CALVED 1808, BRED BY B. TOM- 

 KINS. 

 (From an old lithograph.) 



f ers to his cattle and to one of his sons, and 

 says further: "My father always told me that 

 his great-grandfather (the said John Haywood) 

 was considered a superior man of business, and 

 was a breeder of Hereford cattle. My uncle, 

 Joseph Smith, of Shellesley (who had always 

 lived in that neighborhood), often mentioned 

 this John Haywood as a leading man and 

 breeder of Herefords." 



The fact that the Tomkins family and the 

 Haywoods were breeders, each in the eighteenth 

 century, and probably much earlier, is suffi- 

 cient evidence that the Herefordshire farmers 

 were breeders of a superior class of cattle, and 

 with such a foundation Mr. Benjamin Tom- 

 kins, Jr., commenced his work. 



Mr. J. H. Campbell, of Charlton, Kent Coun- 

 ty, was a contributor to the "Annals of Agri- 

 culture," published by Arthur Young. He 

 wrote two papers for the "Annals" treating on 

 breeds of cattle and sheep, and mainly relating 

 to -the Herefords. Campbell had a controversy 

 with Young as to the point that should charac- 

 terize a model beef animal, and having been 

 described as a warm advocate of the Herefords, 

 he said: "I am so, because of long experience. 

 If I am wrong, it is not for want of painstaking, 

 or being thoroughly acquainted with several 



other breeds, and particularly those about which 

 there has been much said, at least in print, 

 as to which, after a long-continued trial (and 

 in the outset of the trial, as confident in my 

 expectation as anybody could have been of 

 finding them better than the Herefords) in the 

 end being of the opinion that in most cases 

 they were greatly inferior to them." 



Campbell's discussion with Young originated 

 in a difference of opinion as to the merits of 

 an ox, of the true Herefordshire breed, which 

 the former had exhibited. 



Campbell says that "the opinion of many 

 who viewed this animal alive was that they 

 never saw so much beef under a hide of the 

 size, and upon so small proportion of bone." 

 He also stated that he "knew, from experience 

 through trials of various breeds, none that 

 would fatten on less food and few that would 

 not require more than the true Hereford 

 breed. The difference in thriving, for the food 

 given, between them and good specimens of 

 other breeds, which he had fed along with 

 them, did not require weight and scales to 

 determine." 



Mr. Campbell was a farmer in Charlton, Kent 

 County, and a feeder of cattle for the butcher 

 in London market, and commenced feeding 

 cattle at or before 1779, probably before that 

 time. The ox, a specimen of the true Here- 

 fordshire breed, over which the controversy was 

 held, was slaughtered in 1779 and exhibited at 

 Greenwich, on account of the fineness of his 

 flesh, beauty of his shape, symmetry of his 

 parts, fore and aft, the impartial distribution 

 of his weight, and the regular fattening of all 

 his parts. The ox was about seven years old, 

 and the following are the figures of his size and 

 weight: Live weight was 3,360 pounds; the 

 forequarters weighed 1,016 pounds; the hind- 

 quarters weighed 896 pounds. The dressed 

 weight of this ox was 1,912 pounds. 



Mr. John Westcar, of Creslow, Buckingham- 

 shire, an eminent grazier, identified himself 

 with this breed. He regularly attended the 

 Hereford fairs as early as 1779, and the high 

 prices at which he sold bullocks in the London 

 market doubtless convinced many of their 

 adaptability for grazing purposes. We first 

 note his selling fifteen oxen on September 17th, 

 1798, for a price in English currency equal to 

 $4,637.00, an average of $243.00 each. The 

 same year he aided in the organization of the 

 Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Society, before 

 which at their first meeting he took, with a 

 Hereford, the championship for the best ox in 

 the show (II 15). 



Mr. George Dood wrote Rev. J. R. Smythies 



