HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



165 



his own productions. The following was Mr. 

 Brown's reply : 



Cleveland, April 23, 1856. 

 My Dear Sir: 



I do not think there is any special danger 

 of my being seriously used hy Mr. Allen. I 

 know your alarm is honest, and your cautions 

 well meant, and I therefore thank you for your 

 letter. "Agricola" is not Mr. Allen, and I 

 don't know that Allen ever met him. He is one 

 of the "oldest breeders in America," a D. D. 

 and LL. D., whose fame is as wide as the earth. 

 He is now president of a flourishing theological 

 college and professor of Biblical Literature 

 and is none other than the Rev. Robert J. 

 Breckenridge, of Lexington, Ky. Are you sat- 

 isfied on this point? Keep it to yourself. 



I have just received a good article from Aston 

 on Herefords. I mean to do you and your Here- 

 fords full justice, but I must be permitted to 

 take my own time and way to do it. I am 

 obliged to you for any advice, and reproof, even, 

 given in kindness. I desire, too, to continue on 

 friendly relations with you. 

 I am, very truly, 



Your friend, 



THOS. BROWN. 



I wrote Mr. Brown that this was the first I 

 had ever heard of the Rev. Robt. J. Brecken- 

 ridge, and that it was high time he declined to 

 give instructions to breeders. If Mr. Brown's 

 extravagant encomium of the man had gone 

 still further, and he had said this famed Mr. 

 Breckenridge had been known beyond "the 

 earth," I should have believed it quite as read- 

 ily as many other assertions made by him and 

 his correspondents on Shorthorns; but I do and 

 always shall believe that neither of these as- 

 sumed writers on breeds of cattle knew how 

 much mischief he was doing the community by 

 advising "sire to daughter and continue it." 

 One of these noted writers and breeders, to my 

 knowledge, has bred blind calves, calves void 

 of symmetry and quality, calves minus their 

 legitimate power of reproducing, calves with 

 long pedigrees, and who has not gone near so 

 far into the "in-and-in" system as -he recom- 

 mends others to breed, and at the time he talks 

 of "Colling's successful in-and-in breeding in 

 Shorthorns ; the long Scotch coat was produced 

 in them, the origin of which no man can dis- 

 pute who knows both breeds." Here is a mys- 

 tery that ought to be solved and who is more 

 capable of doing it than the man "whose fame 

 is as wide as the earth?" a man anxious for 

 notoriety as a breeder and dictator, a man care- 

 ful and kind to his "flock and herd," a man who 

 advocates truth, purity, morality, honesty, jus- 



tice, one who loves his country. I say again, 

 there can be no better man to solve this mystery 

 than this intelligent and learned divine, upheld 

 and, supported by his one-sided editor and con- 

 temporary, who is so well versed in the im- 

 provement of his country, and in the protec- 

 tion of his pet correspondents. This same one- 

 sided editor speaks of my letters being "made 

 frightful by underlining." Mark the letter 

 above, that his readers may "learn and inwardly 

 digest." This is a wide world to live in, and the 

 people are diversified. Some feel "warm when 

 they have seen the fire," and are satisfied with 

 the comfort such a blessing bestows. Others, 

 with more extravagant ideas, heedlessly clench 

 the flames, and if a man will put his hand in 

 the fire he must expect to get scorched. Ed- 

 itors may, in their ignorance, madness or self- 

 conceit, commit truth to the flames, but can 

 never destroy; it will, phcenix-like, rise again 

 from its ashes, to teach such vain editors de- 

 cency and justice. One-sided editors will fre- 

 quently add brighter coloring to glaring un- 

 truths from a favored correspondent, while his 

 opponent is repulsed with editorial power, in 

 forbidding entrance to his columns what he 

 knows to be true. But truth will out nothing 

 can suppress it. The editor of the "Ohio Farm- 

 er" will sooner or later find out that "two heads 

 are better than one, if one is a sheep's head." 



"DOLLY VARDEN" (V. 9, p. 279) 5. 

 (Bred by J. Morris, Madley, Eng.) 



I did not see Mr. Aston's "good article on 

 Herefords," of which Mr. Brown speaks, nor 

 do I believe it ever appeared. It was in answer 

 to C. M. Clay, therefore, I suppose it was too 

 "powerful" for Shorthorn breeders, and was 

 committed "gently" to the flames, from whence, 

 he thinks, such articles never return. 



I have been accused of "untruth" unfounded- 

 ly by an editor before this, and my accuser had 

 fairly been convicted of perjury ; nothing saved 

 him from a prisoner's cell but money, untruths, 



