HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



183 



chased from Mr. James Walker, with her year- 

 ling bull, which took first prize at the show of 

 the Royal at Oxford in 1839, and bred by Mr. 

 Turner. 



I showed the kindness I received from the 

 late Hon. Erastus Corning of Albany. This 

 gentleman was a pattern to rich men. He was 

 a princely honest man, and was always ready 

 to encourage true enterprise. His object was to 

 do good, and his thorough knowledge of busi- 

 ness and the world gave him the advantage over 

 most men. There was no man who ever knew 

 him thoroughly but that loved and revered him. 

 He was moderate in all his views, kind, even to 

 a fault, and no man worthy of support ever 

 called upon him in vain. He was a true pro- 

 moter of deserving enterprise. I only wish there 

 were more such men at the head of our Govern- 

 ment now. It would then have a solid founda- 

 tion. His mind was based upon a sound and 

 solid principle, and being just in all his deal- 

 ings, he advised others into the same course. 

 With such a mind as this, Mr. Corning could 

 not help seeing the true value of the Hereford 

 cattle when they appeared on his farm, and 

 after paying all the charges upon them, ad- 

 vanced me more money to go to England again 

 for others of a similar character, as they were 

 admired by all who saw them. (j[ 89) 



The trio, Lewis F. Allen, Ambrose Stevens 

 and John R. Page, were the scribes for the 

 "Bates mania," and to denounce the Herefords, 

 and, although neither of them had any practical 

 knowledge of stock, they had an unbounded 

 conceitedness connected with their brass to 

 teach men more practically informed how to 

 breed. 



Then there were Thos. Brown of the "Ohio 

 Farmer/' Francis Rotch of Bates fame, George 

 Vail, an importer and constant puffer of Bates 

 and his tribes, in connection with S. P. Chap- 

 man, neither of whom really knew anything 

 more of Herefords or Shorthorns than a cast- 

 iron soldier. All wrote and re-wrote, but 

 neither knew what they were writing about. 

 They might know enough to distinguish a 

 heifer from a steer. All these scribes went to 

 Erastus Corning with high -praise of Bates and 

 claiming that Herefords had no character. Al- 

 though Mr. Corning felt differently, he was dis- 

 gusted with their familiarity and constant har- 

 angue, that, with his other important business, 

 was a great annoyance to him, and on that ac- 

 count he made me the generous offer which I 

 explained. 



Now, let me show you what became of all 

 these scribes and deceivers. Lewis F. Allen, 

 editor of the Shorthorn Herd Book, became a 



hawker- of his Shorthorns ; tried public sales at 

 great expense, without effect; then sent them 

 to Illinois to be fed on corn for many months 

 to make a better appearance, so that he could 

 dispose of the whole. All who purchased know 

 what trouble there was in obtaining correct 

 pedigrees in the Red Ladies more particular- 

 ly. After the disposal of these he went to 

 Devons. While in Shorthorns and their grades 

 his diary presents a most laughable tale, with 

 which I am familiar, and may present at some 

 future day. 



Ambrose Stevens, the bosom and confidential 

 friend of the editor of the Herd Book, who kept 

 two Shorthorn cows for him, the only stock of 

 the kind he then possessed, bred to Allen's bulls, 

 but bred nothing of character. Allen, finding 

 they were no profit to him, wished me to take 

 them until Stevens could find a place for them. 

 I put them to my Hereford bull Major, and one 

 of them produced a heifer calf of true Hereford 

 character, except she had a "sweet head" so 



GEO. F. MORGAN, LINWOOD, KAN. 



(Member Organization Committee American Hereford Cattle 



Breeders' Association.) 



puffed up by Bates. I saw this heifer at Bata- 

 via, N. Y., when she was two years old, and 

 among the "grand importation" made by Am- 

 brose Stevens, Esq., from Mr. Stevenson, the 

 noted breeder of the Princess tribe, Ambrose 

 could not help but admit that she was the best 

 animal in the lot. She was of pure Hereford 

 character except in head and horns, which were 



