112 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



south and middle of England drive a large 

 number of this popular stock from the Here- 

 ford Candlemas and October fairs. 



" 'The Hereford ox fattens more rapidly than 

 the Devon and in proportion to the quantity of 

 food consumed lays on a greater weight of flesh 

 than a Durham ox. The result of a trial of this 

 kind may be seen at page 34 of Youatt's "Cat- 

 tle." That the flesh of the Hereford is of finer 

 quality than the Durhams is proved by the su- 

 perior price per .stone which it obtains in the 

 Smithfield market.' 



"Comparatively few of the Herefords have 

 as yet been introduced into this country. Mr. 

 Bement of this city has a bull and a cow of this 

 breed which are fine animals. The Honorable 

 W. C. Rives of Virginia, and the Honorable 

 Henry Clay of Kentucky have made importa- 

 tions of these animals and they have been in 

 their possession so long that either of these gen- 

 tlemen could speak fully of their value as com- 

 pared with the Shorthorns, in the points of feed- 

 ing, milk, and endurance of our climate, and 

 we think at this time, when attention is turned 

 to the subject, they will confer a great benefit 

 on the American public by stating the result of 

 their experience and their opinions with regard 

 to these cattle. We need not say we should be 



happy to be the medium of presenting such his- 

 tory and opinions to the public. 



"We have presented these remarks in the 

 hope of eliciting from some who are qualiiied 

 for the task, a discussion of the comparative 

 merits of the Herefords and the Shorthorns and 

 their adaptation to our country for the purposes 

 of feeding and the dairy. Both are valuable 

 breeds; the question to be decided is, which, in 

 all respects, is the most proper for us ?" 



It will be noticed in the foregoing that the 

 "Cultivator"' quotes the encyclopedia published 

 by the Society for the Diffusion of Useful 

 Knowledge, Vol. XII, article, "Herefordshire." 

 It should be compared with the same society's 

 Youatt book. We call attention to that por- 

 tion of the "Cultivator's" quotations in italics 

 (which are our own). Will the Shorthorn men 

 recognize them as facts? In the same volume, 

 p. 158, a correspondent of the "Cultivator" says 

 as follows: 



"Among the recent importations for improve- 

 ment that have taken place in this state is that 

 of Hereford cattle and Cotswold sheep, by 

 Messrs. Corning & Sotham of Albany. At- 

 tracted by a letter of Mr. Sotham that appeared 

 in the July number of the 'Cultivator/ when 

 down last month, I made an inspection of these 



HEREFORD OX AT 4 TEARS; CHAMPION AT SMITHFIELD, 1868. 



