68 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



organization to the time he was writing, but 

 fails to give any particulars as to the winnings 

 before that society, or the sales that were made 

 in the London market, which were accessible to 

 him. 



Beside the foregoing facts which were in his 

 possession and used in the description of other 

 breeds, there were the following leading events' 

 in the history of the Hereford cattle that were, 

 or might have been, accessible to him : 



First, Mr. John Speed, of London,* in his 

 history (1627), said of the Herefords, that they 

 were the best conditioned cattle in England. 

 Again, he fails to notice the work of Mr. Ben- 

 jamin Tomkins, commenced in 1766, and con- 

 tinued for about fifty years, a successful breed- 

 er of Hereford cattle and of wide reputation. 

 A public sale made of his cattle averaging 

 nearly $750 per head, and attracting the atten- 

 tion of the kingdom. He also fails to notice 

 Mr. John Price, of Ryall, who followed Mr. 

 Tomkins, and was a leading Hereford breeder 



THE SHERIFFS, LYONSHALL, HEREFORDSHIRE, 

 OCCUPIED BY THE JEFFRIES FAMILY. 



at the time he wrote what purports to be a his- 

 tory of Hereford cattle, selling cattle of his 

 breeding at extraordinary prices. 



He also fails to notice the work of the Hew- 

 ers, who were at the* time Hereford breeders of 

 national reputation, having bulls on hire in 

 many counties! 



(fl 54) He also fails to notice the weekly 

 sales of Hereford cattle at Hereford, and also 

 the annual October sales held in Hereford, 

 which sales were of national reputation; and 

 the fact that graziers of cattle in Buckingham, 

 Kent, and other counties near London, visited 

 these fairs and made purchases of cattle to be 

 fitted for the London market, and for exhibi- 



*Engl&n<J, Wales, and Scotland described (1627). 



tion at the Smithfield show. While he quotes 

 from Mr. Marshall a description and character 

 of the Herefordshire ox as he had seen them in 

 Herefordshire, he fails to notice that Mr. Mar- 

 shall says : "The Herefordshire breed of cattle, 

 taking it all in all, may, without risk, be 

 deemed the first breed of cattle in England, 

 their superiority as beasts of draught, and their 

 being eligible as dairy stock." All of which, 

 and more of the same import, appears in the 

 same article from which Mr. Youatt quotes in 

 his history. 



Neither does he take any notice of the forma- 

 tion of the Smithfield Cattle and Sheep Soci- 

 ety, which was afterwards changed to the 

 Smithfield Club, or of the winnings of the 

 Hereford cattle at the first and subsequent ex- 

 hibitions of the society, all of which were a 

 matter of record in London on the books of 

 the society. 



Having slighted the leading British breed of 

 cattle (the Herefords) in every conceivable 

 way, Mr. Youatt deliberately delivered the 

 preparation of the Shorthorn section of his 

 work into the hands of a Shorthorn enthusiast, 

 and in embodying it as part of his work, says, 

 "for every portion of the text in this excellent 

 account of the Shorthorns we are indebted to 

 the Rev. Henry Berry, than whom there are few 

 more zealous breeders of cattle, while there is 

 no better judge of them." 



In giving a description of the Herefords he 

 presents two cuts, one of a Hereford ox, and 

 the other a cow, in store condition, while for 

 Shorthorns and other breeds he gives cuts show- 

 ing the animals in full flesh. 



We are thus particular in criticizing Mr. 

 Youatt for the reason that his description of 

 the Hereford cattle has been quoted from that 

 time to the present day as a correct description, 

 and his work has been used to the disadvantage 

 of the Hereford breed. It would seem that not 

 only the Shorthorns were described by Mr. 

 Berry, but that Mr. Youatt took Mr. Berry's 

 prejudiced and selfish view of the Herefords, 

 or that he allowed the Shorthorn fanciers to 

 revise and abridge the Hereford history ; cer- 

 tain it is that he was unfair in writing the de- 

 scription, and unjust (amounting to carica- 

 ture) in the cuts that he used to illustrate the 

 character of the Hereford breed (fl 50). 



When the true character of Youatt's work be- 

 gan to be realized there was an urgent demand 

 for an unbiased history. The Herefords have 

 ever been in the main owned by tenant farm- 

 ers, who had more care for producing a supe- 

 rior breed of profitable cattle than in advertis- 

 ing them. There being no Herefordshire 



