HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



229. 



CHAPTER XV. 



REVIVAL OF HEREFORD INTEREST IN AMERICA 



From 1850 to 1871, although Hereford cattle 

 in America were making friends for themselves 

 in their immediate vicinity and had very 

 staunch friends in all who bred and handled 

 them, they were not so widely known as their 

 merits deserved. 



This, possibly, was owing to the tremendous 

 upheaval in the political world of America, ter- 

 minating in the Civil War that occupied the 

 entire attention of the people from April, 1861, 

 to 1865. There were very few families either 

 Xorth or South but what sent their contribution 

 of father, son or brother to the armies. The 

 price of all produce of the farm was high. The 

 price of meat was correspondingly high. The 

 farmers and stock raisers all made money with 

 such stock as they had, and did not feel that 

 urgent need of improvement that came later. 



In 1871 I determined to spend the balance 

 of my life upon the farm if we could find a 

 way to make it profitable; and in view of this 

 determination we gave two years to careful in- 

 vestigation as to the best methods and practices 

 for obtaining this result, and this investigation 

 brought us to the adoption of the Hereford 

 breed of cattle. We were familiar with Mr. 

 Sotham's fight for Hereford cattle through the 

 files of the Albany "Cultivator," etc., which we 

 had preserved, and these cattle were again urged 

 upon our notice by Mr. William Powell (ft 117), 

 who was then acting as our foreman. As a re- 

 sult of our investigations early in February, 

 1872, we made our first purchase of six or eight 

 head of Hereford cattle. 



In March or April following we bought three 

 more at the sale of W. W. Aldrich, Elyria, Ohio; 

 two or three months afterwards we bought of 

 Dyke and Creed, in Ohio, some twelve or thir- 

 teen head. Soon after we purchased six heifers 

 from John Humphries, Elyria, Ohio, and about 

 the same time we bought for $1,000 gold the 

 Hereford bull Sir Charles (3434) 543 from F. 

 W. Stone of Canada. 



From time to time as opportunity presented 

 itself, we purchased from others; from D. K. 

 Shaw of Chautauqua his entire herd, and later 

 the herd of H. C. Burleigh of Maine, excepting 



one cow and calf; from H. Woodward's estate 

 in Kansas, the entire herd, and quite a number 

 at different times from Mr. Parsons of Pitts- 

 field, Ohio; several from Mr. Thomas Clark, 

 then of Elyria, Ohio; several from the Hon. 

 John Merryman, Cockeysville, Md. (ft 118) ; 

 and in 1873 imported from England Dolly 

 Varden (Vol. 9, p. 279) 5, and her bull calf 

 Success (5031) 2. 



When we had become satisfied of the value of 

 the breed we undertook to make it known 

 through the advertising columns of the agricul- 

 tural and live stock journals of the country. 

 We found a very warm opposition from the 

 Shorthorn interest as against their introduction, 

 and ceased to make any strenuous efforts to in- 

 troduce them among farmers in the States. 



In the meantime quite an extensive corre- 

 spondence had grown up with the ranchmen at 

 the West. There seemed to be a demand from 

 that quarter that promised success, but it proved 

 difficult to bring out of that correspondence any 

 results. 



The plains of Colorado (ft 120) were, in 

 1874, still the home of the buffalo, but cattle 

 were being rapidly brought north from the 

 great breeding grounds in Texas to stock them 

 with beef animals. Denver, at that time, was 

 the center for cattle men, they coming here for 

 their supplies and making it their headquarters 

 when not off on the range. 



We took our first shipment of Herefords that 

 went away from home to be sold, to Denver, 

 Col. This consisted of five Hereford bulls. 

 Three of these were sold in the spring of 1874 

 to Mr. Geo. Zweck of Longmont, Col. They 

 were Plato (4843) 590, Duke of Beaufort 

 (4527) 744 and Hervey (4644) 815. The first 

 was four years old, the second was two years 

 old, the third one year old. These bulls were 

 put upon the range. Plato, the four-year-old, 

 had been a show bull, and kept in high condi- 

 tion. He held this condition when on the range 

 and continued a vigorous stock-getter for eight 

 years. The other two bulls were reported eleven 

 years later as still in fine condition and yet in 

 service in Wyoming, in the herd belonging to 



