HISTOEY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



169 



"the best judges I have heard speak upon the 

 subject regard the Herefords as not a pure 

 breed, and if they were I have all the less fancy 

 for them." This remarkable injustice; this 

 hearsay ; this fancy ; this self-contradiction, is it 

 not untruth? Mr. Clay, I will not have it so; 

 neither will I deem it self-interest, if I am con- 

 sidered by the public "to step outside the rules 

 of gentlemen." I cannot help it I must say 

 it is your amiable weakness to vindicate history. 

 Notwithstanding this, your opinion is the same 

 opinion still. Your robust family is the same 

 and may still be the best in the world under the 

 same opinion. Durhams may still be the best- 

 breed of cattle, and Locomotive, who took the 

 first premium against the world, is still Loco- 

 motive if his weight has kept such steam pres- 

 sure from his becoming too exaltingly elevated. 

 So the world goes we are all entitled to an 

 opinion, and many of them will be remembered 

 as long as they remain in print. 



Again, Mr. Clay says : "As to the Herefords, 

 I have nothing to say, for or against them, ex- 



Show at Birmingham; he will there find the 

 Herefords stood far superior to any other breed 

 classes at that exhibition. Mr. Clay did not 

 mean to pull down the Herefords by these re- 

 marks, I know he did not. He had previously 

 said it was not necessary, and he would have 

 studied the facts in the case before he had ven- 

 tured to attempt it, though I cannot help think- 

 ing there is a little amiable weakness in this 

 mistake to vindicate history. 



As to the animal likenesses. Did Mr. Clay 

 ever see one of Mr. Page's bull portraits on 

 paper show hollow crops? On the contrary, 

 did Mr. Clay ever see the original except New 

 Year's Day and Balco with full crops? There 

 may be more in these two questions than Mr. 

 C. imagines, and I would advise him to con- 

 sider before he answers them in the name of an 

 old breeder. I have something further to say 

 on this important subject hereafter. 



I have now to acknowledge the proof of Mr. 

 C.'s cow weighing 2,020 Ibs., and also his own 

 assertions that no Hereford in America could 



MEDAL OF THE CENTENNIAL AT PHILADELPHIA, 1876, AWARDED TO T. L. MILLER. 



cept. they have never in public opinion risen 

 to the rank of contending for the supremacy." 

 Can such an assertion as this come from the 

 pen of an old breeder and dealer? 



They have beaten the Shorthorns five times 

 out of eight, when each were contending for 

 supremacy, under the most adverse circum- 

 stances, and influential nobility on the other 

 side. I refer, Mr. Clay, to the annals of the 

 Smithfield and Birmingham Clubs from their 

 beginning for an endorsement of this fact. I 

 also refer him to the report of the "Mark Lane 

 Express" of December loth, of this Christmas 



weigh as heavy, or realize as much as $140. I 

 have bred more than twenty cows that would 

 beat her, myself, under the same circumstances, 

 and to confirm "my opinion" I sold to Mr. 

 Bennett, the noted salesman at Brighton (who 

 almost every dealer knows), a Hereford cow 

 that weighed on the railroad scales at Albany 

 2,313 Ibs., and when in Brighton 2,267 

 Ibs.; Mr. B. gave me $150 cash for her; I 

 also sold him a half-bred Hereford and Short- 

 horn cow, a very superior animal, she weighed 

 somewhat lighter, and sold for less money. The 

 Hereford was milked once a day until August 



