42 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



prized very highly, the Lofty strain from which 

 descended Governor (464) 87, one of the best 

 sires of his day; he was ticked very much. Mr. 

 Bowen, who bred mostly from Hewer stock, had 

 several ticked-faced ones in his herd descended 

 from Governor, of which he thought a great 

 deal. They were heavily fleshed of nice quality, 

 and with great aptitude to fatten; and, as I 

 told you before, my father went in for great 

 scale, with symmetry, weight and quality. There 

 were one or two tick faces at his last sale, but 

 they early wore out from continually crossing 

 with the white faces, although now and then 

 one would crop up. 



"Lofty 147, I may add, was also the dam of 

 Wonder (420) 451, used by the late Lord Ber- 

 wick in his herd, also of a steer, winner of a 

 first prize at the Rutland Show at Oakham in 

 1837, and first at Smithfield. Her produce real- 

 ized 1,289 ($6,445). I remember her very 

 well; she was a favorite with me when a boy." 



The late Mr. E. Bowen, Crofton, wrote: "My 

 first remembrance of the tick-faces in Mr. Hew- 

 er's herd was in 1838. I have heard him say 

 that there was a particular strain that had 

 these face markings, viz., Old Lofty 147, and 

 the Lady Byron 218 fl[ 3 6 A) families. In Gov- 

 ernor (464) 87 the ticks were more blended 

 than in any others. My Old Lady Wiseman 

 7723, by Cardinal Wiseman (1168) 2688, dam 

 a Governor cow, was also ticked-faced; out of 

 fifteen calves produced by her, there was only 

 one ticked-faced. That was her last, named 

 Leah, now in my possession. She is strongly 

 marked with the ticks but she has produced me 

 four calves, all of white-faces, so that I think 

 with a continual crossing with white-faces the 

 ticks will disappear." 



Mr. Forester, Sherlowe, remarks: "Mr. Hew- 

 er's stock were all what is commonly called red 

 with white faces. But this description is sub- 

 ject to a variety of which Mr. Hewer was rather 

 fond, namely, a ticked-face not what is usual- 

 ly termed a mottle face, that is, one with spots 

 such as could be counted, but minute ticks of 

 a bluish tint. The bulls Wonder (420) 451, 

 and Governor (464) 87, had it and their dam, 

 Lofty 147, by Original (455) 219, in a marked 

 degree; also Above All (2910) 3127, and in a 

 less degree his sire Abdel Kader (1837) 3135." 



But, after all, the outstanding feature of Mr. 

 Hewer's stock, as regards color, was their white 

 faces. This uniformity was doubtless produced 

 by careful selection in breeding. We may as- 

 sume that the animals originally obtained by 

 William Hewer possessed the white face and 

 other markings now distinctly characteristic 

 of the breed, and that in his case, and that of 



his son, stock that reverted back to the other 

 shades were not (except in the strain of tick 

 faces to which we have referred) retained for 

 breeding purposes; size and quality also re- 

 ceived great attention, and the impressive power 

 of the Hewer sires in all these particulars was 

 remarkable. 



Mr. John L. Hewer wrote Messrs. McDonald 

 and Sinclair: "It seems strange to you, no 

 doubt, how my father managed to breed from 

 his own stock for such a length of time, and 

 so successfully to keep up the size and character 

 of his herd. But that was his secret. He used 

 to say that he had five different strains, which 

 by judicious crossing kept up their stamina." 



The influence of the Hewer strains is very 

 clearly brought out in an analysis of the pedi- 

 gree of the prize cow Queen of Hearts 1552, 

 which was drawn up. by the Earl of Southesk. 

 It is seen from it how many of the best strains 

 traced back to the bull Silver (540) 358 which 

 Mr. Duckham, in the revised edition of Vol. 1 

 of the Herd Book, truly remarks : "Appears to 

 have laid the foundation of William Hewer's 

 eminence as a breeder." 



Mr. John Hewer did not pamper his cattle. 

 He kept them on plain fare and aimed at de- 

 veloping robust constitutions. It is believed, 

 indeed, that his system of management was of 

 a somewhat rough description.. At any rate 

 there were never any complaints as to his ani- 

 mals being delicate. 



YOUNG TRUEBOY (32) 630, BRED BY JOHN PRICE, 

 CALVED 1838. 



Mr. John L. Hewer tells us that his father's 

 system of management differed very little from 

 that of other farmers in the district. He tried 

 to have most of his calves dropped in the early 

 summer. They ran with their dams in the pas- 

 tures until they were weaned, and were then 

 brought into the house and received a little 

 cake, crushed oats, bran and chaff, with a few 



