HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



115 



ties of the recent importations of Herefords, 

 if they resemble their progenitors, cannot be 

 correct. If these statements are correct, and 

 the appearance and test of the animals will prove 

 it, then improvement has been extended to 

 them. // they have now properties that the 

 breed in the time of YOUATT'S writings had not 

 [but five years previous. T. L. M.], it is a very 

 important question to know how they have ac- 

 quired those properties. MR. YOUATT says: 

 'The Hereford cow is apparently a very inferior 

 animal. Not only is she no milker, but her 

 form has been sacrificed by the breeder.' These 

 observations or these assertions of positive facts, 

 for such we must take them to be when from a 

 standard work, do not read well with the recent 

 assertions of Mr. Sotham and Mr. Bement the 

 first of whom holds out the idea that they are 

 equal to the Shorthorn or Durham, and the 

 latter that they are very good milkers and large. 

 The latter gentleman, however, states that he 

 has understood their qualities for milk have 

 been 'recently improved/ How have they been 

 improved in their quality for milk? Not, cer- 

 tainly, by breeding among themselves, for the 

 trite and true axiom is settled, I believe, that 

 'like begets like.' If, then, the Herefords in 

 the time of YOUATT, and for years before that, 

 wore no 'milkers,' how has the present improve- 

 ment in that quality been effected? It must 

 have been by the aid of some other breed, cele- 

 brated for their possession of that quality, and 

 by whose aid, also, the form of the Hereford 

 cow has been so materially improved, for Mr. 

 Sotham says his are fine looking animals, and 

 so says Mr. R. L. Allen, if I recollect right, 

 who states that he saw them near Albany. 



"Now, Messrs. Editors, may it not be pos- 

 sible that we are at the commencement of an- 

 other 'stock mania,' by which John Bull is 

 about to realize thousands from the farmers of 

 America by selling them a compound breed of 

 beautiful cattle, the essential qualities of which 

 have been derived and that very recently, from 

 the Shorthorns, that we have been making heavy 

 importations of, for years back ? Let any candid 

 man answer the question for his own satisfac- 

 tion. See what the Herefords were; hear what 

 they are now, and then say if there is any im- 

 propriety in charging their admitted 'recent 

 improvement' in points in which Shorthorns 

 excel, to an admixture with them. If such is 

 the fact, and we have a number of the finest 

 specimens of the Shorthorns, cannot we, by 

 judicious crossings and attention to these mat- 

 ters breed, for ourselves, if I may be allowed the 

 expression, a breed of cattle without expending 

 enormous sums to pay our trans- Atlantic neigh- 



bors for doing work that we ought now to do 

 for ourselves? The state of the times is such 

 as to call loudly upon every man in every sta- 

 tion of society to do his duty to himself and 

 to his country; and I state it boldly, without 

 fear of contradiction, that there is now abun- 

 dant material in our own country to retain, by 

 judicious breeding, the purity of the full-bred 

 Durham, and to commingle their perfections 

 with the stock of our own country, in such a 

 manner as to produce a race of animals equal 

 to that of any other country under the sun, 

 for dairy qualities as well as for the butcher." 



The reader of to-day will see the Shorthorn 

 advocate quoting Youatt (Berry). At page 

 161 is the following letter written by Mr. So- 

 tham, from Portsmouth: 



"Messrs. Gay lord & Tucker: I am so far 

 on my journey with the best lot of stock ever 

 seen together. They consist of the following 

 [sheep omitted. T. L. M.] : 



"One Hereford cow [Spot 1074 alias 

 Matchless, T. L. M.] that won the first prize at 

 Oxford, 1839, against all England, and a young 

 bull [Young Prize 1070 (2333) T. L. M.] 

 from her eleven months old. 



"Two five-year-old Hereford heifers. These 

 heifers are in calf by Dangerous 1619 (419), 



CITY OF HEREFORD, CATHEDRAL AND WYE BRIDGE. 



a yearling bull that is to be shown against all 

 England next year. 



"One half-bred between the Hereford and 

 Durham to show the cross, which I think is an 

 excellent one, probably better than the pure- 

 bred of either and from what I saw of Mr. 

 Cother's stock, of Middle Aston, it might be 

 extended much further than is generally sup- 

 posed, for his fourth cross was equal to the 

 first not the least sign of degeneration. Of 

 this I will say more when I have more time, for 

 it is now precious. * * * 



