HISTORY OF HEBE FORD CATTLE 



PAET IV. 



All who have read the description of Lewis 

 F. Allen's comparison of the Herefords and the 

 Shorthorns in his hook on cattle must have 

 been satisfied of his extreme prejudice against 

 the former. It was certainly distinctly plain 

 to all who read it that it must have been written 

 to give a very unfavorable impression of the 

 abused Herefords. [Allen did not mention the 

 name of Sotham in his book, purporting to 

 be a history of cattle breeds entitled "Ameri- 

 can Cattle/' referring to Mr. Sotham as "an 

 Englishman." T. L. M.] He tried to make it 

 appear that those I sent to the East from Al- 

 bany had no reputation, while, in fact, the 

 steers bred from the bulls I sold to Mr. Bing- 

 ham, of Vermont, and others, stood higher in 

 the Boston market than any other, and were 

 much sought after by the butchers, although 

 only half-bred. 



I refer you to a letter from Mr. Gregory, in 

 the Albany "Cultivator" of 1851, page 305. 

 He says : "A car-load of two-year-old Hereford 

 steers, on ordinary keeping, astonished the Bos- 

 ton buyers and butchers, and sold higher per 

 pound than any other." What could L. F. Al- 

 len have been thinking of when he tried 

 to injure those Herefords which he said the 

 Englishman (moaning W. H. Sotham) sent to 

 Vermont and Maine ? He knew when he wrote 

 that pretended history that he was deviating 

 from the truth. I sold several to go to Maine, 

 where they succeeded admirably. 



He knew full well the full history of the 

 importation of Mr. Corning and myself; fre- 

 quently sympathized with me for the loss we 

 had sustained at sea, but I always mistrusted 

 his sympathy was feigned for a selfish purpose, 

 and so it ultimately proved. His object was to 

 obtain the Herefords, if possible, and applied to 

 Mr. Corning to see if he could purchase them, 

 by giving him time, but Mr. C. informed him 

 that if the Herefords were sold that I should 

 have the advantage, and at half the price he 

 would sell them to anyone else. 



Mr. L. F. Allen did not dream of the state- 

 ments he made, for he knew the whole particu- 

 lars. He knew I was dependent on Mr. Corn- 

 ing's generosity. He came to see me at Albany 

 and went to see the Herefords (fl 95). Mr. 

 Corning told him that I should have them as 

 above stated. Mr. Allen had been in the Legis- 

 lature, was a prolific speaker at every meeting 

 connected with agriculture, generally chief 

 spokesman, and was never more happy than 

 when upon his legs and his tongue going. 



Under the circumstances I confided in what 



he told me. "You buy the Herefords," said he, 

 "take them up to Black Rock. My brother will 

 sell you his cows, eighteen in number, his cans, 

 and half of the team and wagon, which draw his 

 and my milk to Buffalo. The milk business is 

 good, you can soon pay for the cows from their 

 milk, and the Herefords will sell there. The 

 timothy grows as high as the fence, the shady 

 pastures are always good; you cannot help but 

 make money, and you and I can send up our 

 milk together, as my 

 brother and I have 

 done." This struck 

 me as an excellent 

 opening. I made the 

 purchase and took 

 possession sent up 

 my milk with L. F. 

 Allen; but I soon 

 found out that the 

 demand for it was 

 not so good as repre- 

 sented, the price low- 

 er, and, for the first 

 time, I began to sus- 

 pect that the Aliens 

 were getting out of it 

 on that account; but 

 I got on in 

 way 



milk paid my expenses and a little over, 

 about a year I sold to R. L. Allen two Here- 

 ford heifer calves, to be sent to Cuba, the price 

 of which about half paid for the Allen cows. 

 He purchased at the same time about six Short- 

 horns of L. F. Allen. They were all shipped 

 together to New York; from there by R. L. 

 Allen to Cuba. The whole of the Shorthorns 

 died on the voyage, and the two Herefords were 

 the only ones that landed safely. This Mr. A. 

 B. Allen published in the "Agriculturist," 

 when he was its editor. 



After trying the milk business one year, in 

 connection with the Herefords, I found the ob- 

 ject of Mr. L. F. Allen getting me there was to 

 get his brother as well out of it as he could, 

 and give him a chance to get some of the Here- 

 fords, of which I sold him three a bull, a cow 

 and a heifer calf. He took these three to Al- 

 bany, with the whole of his Shorthorns, with 

 one of the most flattering advertisements in 

 the Albany "Cultivator and Country Gentle- 

 man" that was ever put into print, and a com- 

 ment made by the editor of the high value of 

 this herd of the editor of the "Shorthorn Herd 

 Book." All of the Shorthorns that were sold at 

 the sale were two, purchased by Mr. Geo. Vail, 

 of Troy, whose sale was soon to follow, and the 



W. E. BRITTEN, 

 HEREFORD, ENG. 



the best ( A large exporter of Herefords 

 u -.- to America.) 



I could. My 



In 



