HISTORY OF HEEEFORD CATTLE 



slighted by the visitors. I was treated as an 

 innovator, a braggadocio, or an adventurer un- 

 worthy of notice by the clique; men I have 

 mentioned looked over the other's shoulders 

 and withdrew with a puff; a few good judges 

 pronounced them a superior breed of cattle. 

 Luther Tucker, Sr., was quite taken with them, 

 and wrote a splendid short article praising 

 them highly, for which he received many up- 

 braidings from his pet Shorthorn correspond- 

 ents. As there was no Hereford Herd Book 

 when I imported them, this was held as a plea 

 for their not being worthy of showing against 

 the Shorthorns, with all their alloys, and many 

 made a laughing stock of themselves by abus- 

 ing their thick, mellow hides, and turned their 

 white faces into ridicule. Then their excuse 

 was that it was impossible for judges to decide 

 between two breeds. I asked them if there 

 was more than one proper standard for a good 

 and profitable beefing animal, and whether 

 there was not to be found unprejudiced men of 

 good, sound, common sense, capable of judging, 

 impartially, a good animal regardless of the 

 breed. I was aware that flesh governed almost 

 all judges, but if the Shorthorn men were de- 

 termined to pamper, and state societies allowed 

 them to do so, Hereford breeders must do the 

 same. Shorthorn men would not accept of this. 

 Xeither would they accept of a challenge. When 

 I offered to show four cows and a bull against 

 them on the show ground, on my own account, 

 for $100, they evaded it, well knowing they 

 would be beaten under good and impartial 

 judges, as I consider three of these cows were 

 as good as any of the late importations. One 

 was the first prize cow at the Oxford Royal, two 

 others first and second at Tredegar, and the 

 bull first prize with dam and their offspring. 

 Although they had not been pampered, they 

 showed evenness of flesh, with substance, sym- 

 metry and quality; they did not require pam- 

 pering to hide their faults in their coarseness, 

 or require long legs, long necks, high crests and 

 high hips, to make them stylish or fashionable, 



but I OFFERED TO WEIGH THEM ON THE SCALES 



AT THE SAME AGES. They considered this "im- 

 pudence" in me ; they declined to accept.- They 

 knew they were beaten and kept aloof, instead 

 of embracing the opportunity. I called upon 

 the officers of the State Agricultural Society in 

 the following letter to the Albany "Cultivator," 

 September number, pages 250-53 : 



"I did not intend to have said anything more 

 in favor of Herefords, as I had made up my 

 mind to let them take their chance till their 

 real value should be proved, but as certain in- 

 dividuals are. continually boasting of particular 



tribes of Shorthorns, in your paper, I am anx- 

 ious to see the Herefords brought into fair 

 competition with them. I think the State Ag- 

 ricultural Societies should do something to 

 bring the different breeds to a fair trial. I am 

 ready to stand a brush with any breed and in 

 any way the society will point out. All I ask 

 is a fair field and no favor. My idea is that 

 some of each breed should be placed in the 

 hands of an honest, disinterested person, to try 

 the experiment, and the society should pay the 

 expenses. An accurate account kept of the 

 weight and kind of food consumed; the beef, 

 butter, or other products should also be weighed 

 and disposed of, and the cattle that yield the 

 greatest return from the weight taken at com- 

 mencement for cost of food, etc., should be de- 

 termined the best. I hope the Executive Com- 

 mittee will take this matter into consideration 

 and propose an honest trial." 



This, and many other such trials, I offered 

 these boasting men of Bates, but not one dared 

 to take me up. They were aware that discre- 

 tion was the best part of valor, in the position 

 in which they were placed. The tongues and 

 the pens of these Shorthorn men before named 

 had given them a widespread notoriety, and 

 their money gave them a partial command of 

 the press. Most of the agricultural editors and 

 proprietors were 

 poor, and money 

 to them was 

 tempting. They 

 puffed and praised, 

 where no praise 

 was due, but in 

 reality censure 

 might have been 

 more properly ad- 

 ministered. Lewis 

 F. Allen strained 

 every nerve to 

 bring the Short- 

 horns, more espe- 

 cially Bates, into 

 notoriety ; but he 

 took great precau- 

 tion to keep de- 

 grading and more important facts in the dark, 

 as Bates did in his pedigrees; took great 

 care to keep the best qualities of the Herefords 

 out of sight, and exhibit fancied weak points 

 conspicuously. 



I refer you to Mr. Allen's fraudulent book 

 on cattle. Never were more infamous inten- 

 tional mistakes printed on paper. He read 

 Youatt, and grounded his artificial knowledge 

 of Herefords on this unfounded authority. 



G. S. BURLEIGH. 

 VASSALBORO, ME. 



