140 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



bred by Mr. Turner, purchased by Mr. Hewer 

 for Mr. James Walker, and the only reason I 

 altered her name was I had one named 'Spot' 

 in my first importation. 



"I will give my views on sheep breeding at 

 some future period. I think nothing is a better 

 test for profitable animals than those that get 

 the greatest weight of animal food with the 

 least vegetables. 



"WM. HY. SOTHAM. 



"Perch Lake Farm, April, 1841." 



We now give a letter from Mr. Wm. King- 

 ham, which may be found in the "Cultivator," 

 on page 116: 



"Messrs. Editors of the 'Cultivator' : I have 

 been induced to take up my pen by the perusal 

 of a controversy between Messrs. Randall, Hep- 

 burn and Sotham. I have been acquainted with 

 the Hereford cattle for the last thirty years, as 

 a grazier, a dairyman and butcher. My father 

 used to graze about fifty and dairy about seventy 

 cows, of different breeds, Longhorns, Short- 

 horns and Herefords, in Oxfordshire, England. 

 For feeding, the Herefords are not surpassed by 

 any breed I have ever seen ; for the dairy, I do 

 not say they are invariably good milkers, 

 though they are, many of them, very good. I 

 never kept an account of the produce of a single 

 cow, but one of my neighbors says he knew a 

 Hereford cow that made sixteen pounds of but- 

 ter per week. As a butcher, which business I 

 worked at in London, and afterwards followed 

 in Berkshire for eight years, I say the Here- 



MARCHIONESS, BRED BY E'. CORNING, JR., ALBANY, 



N. Y. 

 (First prize, N. Y. S. F., 1867. From a drawing by Page.) 



fords cut the best stall of beef I ever put a knife 

 in. Mr. Hepburn takes Youatt for his author, 

 and by his description is led to believe the 

 Herefords to have been a trifling breed as lately 

 as six years ago. I know them to have been as 



good thirty years since as now, and whenever 

 they have been shown against the Shorthorns 

 have oftener gained the prize than their antago- 

 nists. Mr. Youatt must have been prejudiced 

 in favor of the Shorthorns, was ignorant of the 

 qualities of the Herefords, or got his informa- 

 tion from some one no better informed than 

 himself. Mr. Hepburn very ingeniously en- 

 deavors to impose on his understanding by sup- 

 posing the Herefords of Mr. Sotham to be the 

 produce of a stolen cross with the Durhams. I 

 have no doubt but Mr. H.'s experience, if he 

 lives long, will convince him that his supposi- 

 tion was erroneous, and that he_ was misleading 

 the judgment of the community and doing in- 

 justice to the breeder and importer by suppos- 

 ing them guilty of imposition. I should say, 

 as a breeder, the Herefords need no such cross ; 

 but I should say as a breeder, that many of the 

 Durhams, some of even Herd Book pedigrees, 

 would be materially improved by a cross with 

 the Herefords, as having a tendency to lengthen 

 the rump . and widen the -hip of those whose 

 edge or round bones are wider than their hips, 

 the rump short and low, the tail high, and their 

 skin as tight over their rump as if stretched 

 over it with a pair of pincers. Such animals 

 have a thick, heavy thigh, the thick, coarse but- 

 tock, supported by a large bone, coarse leg, the 

 sides, as Culley* describes, being one layer of 

 black flesh across another, the shoulder bones 

 large, the points projecting. Such beasts arc 

 sure to be bad handlers, never get very thin, and 

 never get fat, will get fleshy, but when it is on 

 is no better than bull beef. With such animals a 

 cross from the Herefords would be a great im- 

 provement. I have handled many Durhams 

 with high pedigree, with all the above objec- 

 tions. I never yet put my hand on a Hereford 

 that was not a good handler. My opinion of 

 the Herefords is that they are the nicest breed 

 of cattle, taken for all purposes, that walk the 

 earth, and would have had some in Ohio long 

 ago if my means had been equal to my wishes. 



"I remain, gentlemen, yours respectfully, 

 "WILLIAM KINGHAM. 



"Springfield, Clark Co., 0., March 11, 1841." 



We now give a letter from Mr. Wm. Cother, 

 of Oxfordshire, England, to Mr. Sotham, under 

 date of Middle. Aston, Oxfordshire, Feb. 1, 

 1841, which may be found on page 132 of the 

 "Cultivator" for 1841 : 



"Mr. Wm. H. Sotham: I am happy to in- 

 form you that our ram season closed very satis- 

 factory for the breeders of Cotswolds. Their 

 superiority is acknowledged by the extraordi- 

 nary demand and the high prices given for 

 them, which is very easily accounted for by 



