HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



milk is superior to that of any other cow except 

 the Alderney. The quantity of milk given by a 

 cow will greatly depend on her treatment with 

 her first calf. If she has not proper feed to 

 swell the milk veins at first starting she will 

 never afterwards make a good milker. The 

 Hereford cow seldom has a fair chance here. 

 I speak from experience/' he says, "for I have 

 had much to do with the Herefords for several 

 years, and have had many good milking cows 

 of that breed," to which Mr. Youatt says, 

 "these are very important observations, and 

 although we are not sufficiently convinced to 

 alter what we have written, and what almost 

 universal experience and belief confirm, the 

 remarks of Mr. Walker deserve serious atten- 

 tion." 



Mr. Youatt, in making up the history of the 

 Hereford cattle, quotes from Marshall his de- 

 scription of the points on which to judge the 

 Hereford breed, but does not quote Marshall 

 when he says: "The Herefordshire breed of 

 cattle, taking it all in all, may, without risk, I 

 believe, be deemed the first breed of cattle in 

 this island. Their frame is altogether athletic, 

 with limbs in most cases sufficiently clean for 

 the purpose of traveling (H 52). 



"Their form as beasts of draught is nearly 

 complete. Besides their superiority as beasts 

 of draught and their being eligible as dairy 

 stock, being in this respect similar to Glouces- 

 tershire, the females fatten kindly at an early 

 age, the strongest proof of their excellency 

 as fattening cattle. I have seen three-year-old 

 heifers of this breed, to use a familiar phrase, 

 as fat as mud; much fatter than any heifers of 

 that age that I have seen of any other' breed, 

 the spayed heifer of Norfolk excepted. 



"Viewing the Herefordshire cattle in this 

 light, which I believe to be the true one, how 

 unfortunate for the rural affairs of the kingdom 

 has been the choice of the spirited breeders of the 

 midland counties," who had selected the long- 

 horn variety for their use. Nor does he quote 

 Marshall when Marshall says that "at the Here- 

 ford fair, in October, 1788, I saw about 1,000 

 head of cattle, chiefly of this breed, a large pro- 

 portion of them of grown oxen, full of flesh, 

 sold for, or were worth, at the selling prices of 

 the day, from 12 ($60) to 17 ($85) an ox, 

 the most valuable collection I have met with out 

 of Smithfield market, and by much the finest 

 show I have anywhere seen." 



These statements, as made by Marshall, were 

 accessible to Mr. Youatt, and should have been 

 used. 



Neither does Youatt refer to the J. H. Camp- 

 bell Hereford ox, shown and slaughtered at 



Greenwich in 1789, whose live weight was 3,360 

 pounds and dressed weight 1,912 pounds (for 

 the four quarters), and was sold to the butch- 

 ers for $350 (70). Nor does he mention the 

 correspondence that grew out of the exhibition 

 and slaughter of the animal as contained in the 

 "Annals of Agriculture" in Vols. 11, 12 and 13. 



Neither does he refer to the formation of the 

 Smithfield Club, nor to the fact that from 1799 

 to 1835, inclusive, the Herefords won 93 

 premiums, amounting to $7,060, against the 

 Shorthorns winning 37 premiums and $3,275. 



Neither does he refer to the sales of fat cattle 

 made at Smithfield during the years from 1779 

 to 1835, and more particularly of the especially 

 well-known sale by Mr. Westcar on Sept. 17th, 

 1798, of fifteen oxen a't an average of $243, and 

 of the still better known fact that from 1799 

 to 1811 Mr. Westcar had sold at Smithfield 

 twenty head of Hereford oxen at an average 



COTMORE, LYONSHALL. HEREFORDSHIRE, HOME OF 

 MESSRS. JEFFRIES. 



of $531 as butchers' beasts, or that Mr. Westcar 

 made a sale of fifty Hereford oxen in 1812 or 

 1813 for $250 each. 



These are facts that were matters of record 

 in London and accessible to Mr. Youatt, as was 

 the fact that at the London market Herefords 

 were selling at 5 shillings ($1.25) per hundred 

 pounds of dressed weight higher than the 

 Shorthorns (fl 53). 



We have made copious quotations from You- 

 att's "History of British Cattle" to reiterate the 

 fact that he had information that would have 

 given the Herefords an entirely different posi- 

 tion among British cattle if the facts had been 

 accredited to the breed in their history. I re- 

 peat that in quoting from Marshall, the emi- 

 nent agricultural historian, he omitted import- 

 ant facts. He recognized that the Herefords 

 were successful at the Smithfield Club from its 



