a 14 



H 1 S T O R Y OF H E E E F E D C A T T L E 



PART X11I. 



As many of the Herefords conn 1 , when calved, 

 with spots on their faces, let me tell those con- 

 cerned that it is no disparagement to the breed. 

 1 have seen some of the best with mottled faces. 

 Tomkins was a prominent breeder of the best, 

 and preferred the mottled face, and many are 

 descended to his favorite mottled faced cow, 

 which, at that day, was considered as good as 

 any, and those that run back to the Tomkins 

 sort in this respect are generally good animals. 



The defeat the Bates Shorthorns have ex- 

 perienced at the Bath and West of England 



A BUNCH OF MISSOURI YEARLING HEIFERS. 

 (Bred by T. F. B. Sotham.) 



show, by the Herefords, has had a tendency to 

 check their breeders' vanity. 1 will here give 

 extracts from the leading papers of England. 



The following is from the "Mark Lane Ex- 

 press" of June 17th, 1878, on the Royal Show 

 of that year: 



"We consider the Shorthorn cow class to be 

 a disgrace to that breed, and therefore to the 

 breeders. We are quite unable to discover the 

 'grandeur' and 'superb character,' and the 'mag- 

 nificent character' of these old crocks, which 

 some of the Shorthorn fanciers appear to have 

 the faculty of discovering, and do not hesitate 

 to record them as being just a rough lot of cows. 

 If their blood is of the bluest, their carcasses 

 nre of the ugliest, and are not worth anything 

 beyond contractor's price when they come at 

 last to the shambles. We can't help thinking 

 that to a really unprejudiced mind there must 

 be an evidence of a something outside agri- 

 culture, and quite useless to the rent-paying 

 farmer, in this Shorthorn 'fancy.' We are sen- 

 sible of the improvement that has been effected 

 already in the rank and file of our cattle 

 throughout the country by the use of this Short- 



horn blood. We do not wish to detract one iota 

 from its legitimate merits, but simply to point 

 out wherein it becomes sometimes a matter of 

 ridicule to non-believers. We see prizes 

 awarded systematically which are not calcu- 

 lated to improve the production of either meat 

 or milk in their descendants, and we are told 

 that there is some marvelous power and virtue 

 stowed up in their veins, and that although 

 their bodies the casket are unsightly, their 

 blood the jewel is pure, potent and almost 

 priceless. Well, we simply do not believe it 

 as they put it. We are perfectly well aware that 

 any 'terribly in-bred weed," a wretch to look at, 

 but having an exceptional pedigree, will, if 

 matched with mongrel-bred stock, produce a 

 result which is far, very far, in advance of the 

 mongrel-bred dams. So would any absolutely 

 purely bred animal. Therefore, we think that 

 farmers, those who have the production of beef 

 and milk in view, have a right to expect some- 

 thing which is calculated to effect their object in 

 a direct manner; no breeder of bullocks would 

 give herd room, much more a high price, for 

 the bluest blood bull which did not carry a 

 frame the character of which it was desirable 

 to transmit. When a lot of highly bred, but 

 not correctly fashionable, young bulls, are to be 

 bought for about thirty pounds apiece, and 

 here and there one that has been bred correctly 

 to" fashion fetches three thousand pounds and 

 would not be worth one shilling more to the 

 food producer, then we think we are justified 

 in saying that rent-paying farmers have already 

 drawn the line between business and fancy by 

 refusing to give more than a business price for 

 a fancy article. We should be glad to see every 

 young Shorthorn bull now in the breeders' 

 hands sold to tenant farmers, who would use 

 them for meat or milk, as their requirements 

 might decide, and are firm believers in the gen- 

 eral usefulness and superior adaptability of the 

 breed to any other; but we feel it a duty to point 

 out the ridiculous position the Shorthorn breed- 

 ers seem content to occupy at our great shows, 

 by the mixed qualities and low status of many 

 of the animals exhibited, which gives oppor- 

 tunity for pointing the finger of scorn, and 

 leads to such questions as 'when is the bottom 

 of this Shorthorn humbug likely to drop out?' 

 We hear a great deal about the 'alloy,' and if 

 correctly informed, it means an infusion of 

 Scotch blood of some kind, and to our mind the 

 very thing these Shorthorns are now needing 

 is another infusion a strong one of some al- 

 loy which will give them the thickness of flesh, 

 the wealth of hair, and the butchers' form they 

 so seldom possess, and then we should be pre- 



