HISTOEY OF HEKEFOKD CATTLE 



53 



CHAPTER V. 



A NOTED FEEDER ON HEREFORDS AS BEEF ANIMALS 



As to the permanent record of the breed we 

 find that in 1787 J. H. Campbell was a pur- 

 chaser of Hereford cattle and a grazier in the 

 County of Kent, near London, an account of 

 which is given in the following pages with the 

 correspondence that was published in the "An- 

 nals of Agriculture/' an agricultural paper, 

 from 1780 up to 1805. I have given this corre- 

 spondence fully, not only to show what the breed 

 was at that time, but to show also that Mr. 

 Campbell was an intelligent breeder and feeder, 

 and that his statement was: that the Hereford 

 breed of cattle were the best and most econom- 

 ical feeders at that time; and in 1788 Mr. Mar- 

 shall, a noted and intelligent writer on agri- 

 culture and live-stock subjects, after visiting 

 Herefordshire and adjoining counties, pro- 

 nounced the Hereford breed of cattle the finest 

 in the United Kingdom. 



Taking the testimony of Mr. Speed, given in 

 1627, and the testimony of Mr. Campbell, a 

 grazier and feeder, and of Mr. Marshall, a noted 

 writer on live-stock interests of the United 

 Kingdom, twenty years-from the time that Ben- 

 jamin Tomkins commenced his work, it must 

 be assumed that although the complete record 

 is lacking between Lord Tomkins (1570 and 

 1640) and the time of Mr. Campbell and Mr. 

 Marshall (1750 and 1820) the breed was in the 

 hands of good breeders during that time. It is 

 certain that by 1788, Mr. Westcar, of Creslow, 

 Buckinghamshire, was one of a large number 

 of appreciative purchasers of Hereford cattle 

 for grazing and feeding, and that ten years later 

 he was a party to the organization of the Smith- 

 field Cattle Club and a successful exhibitor of 

 Hereford cattle before that society from its first 

 exhibition up to the time of his death in 1819. 



The winnings of the Herefords before the 

 Smithfield Club were in evidence as to the mer- 

 its of the breed, and a very important feature 

 in the history of the Hereford cattle, is the fact 

 that Hereford breeders were farmers and not 

 exhibitors, that they established weekly sale 

 days (ft 46) at Hereford Citv, and a yearly sale 

 in October of each year, as far back as we have 



any record, and that those sale days have been 

 continued up to the present time. 



We have the fact, stated by Mr. Fowler, that 

 on the annual sale day in October there have 

 been brought to the Hereford market as high 

 as 8,000 to 9,000 head, filling not only the mar- 

 ket grounds but the streets of Herefordshire 

 with Hereford cattle, and that during all the 

 time from the first record we have to the pres- 

 ent, that cattle feeders and graziers of Buck- 

 inghamshire and other counties near London 

 have come to the Hereford market on these sale 

 days and to the farmers and purchased their 

 steers at prices much in advance of what like 

 ages of any other breed have been sold for. 



It has been claimed by breeders of the Short- 

 horn cattle that while the Herefords have made 

 much larger gains before the Smithfield Society 

 on oxen and steers, that the Shorthorn breed- 

 ers have made larger gains by the exhibit of 

 Shorthorn cows. This is explained by the fact 

 that Hereford breeders were not exhibitors in 

 the earlier years of this show. The show of 

 Herefords being made by the graziers of other 

 counties who bought their stocks in Hereford- 

 shire (fl 47) (ff 48). 



We have folio wed Mr. Benjamin Tomkins and 

 Mr. John Price in their work, and the Hewers . 

 in theirs ; they were undoubtedly leaders, Tom- 

 kins and Price breeding more compact and 

 smaller animals, and the Hewers breeding more 

 for a larger scale and heavier weights, and be- 

 tween these two lines, Tomkins and Price, and 

 Hewers, we know, there has been an army of 

 breeders through Herefordshire and adjoining 

 counties equally successful and intelligent in 

 their works. 



We have quoted from J. H. Campbell, of 

 Charlton, in Kent, on breeds in a preceding 

 chapter. The following is from a letter to the 

 ''Annals of Agriculture" published in London, 

 dated Charlton, Jan. 15th, 1789: 



"Sir: Enclosed I send, as you desire, a copy 

 of the queries I received from a gentleman (who 

 wished me to inform him of the method I used 

 in feeding cattle on potatoes), with what I wrote 



