244 



HIST OK Y OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



advocate of Herefords in America, Mr. William 

 H. Sotham, and following in this honorable 

 company, our own portrait. 



As was natural and right, after the forma- 

 tion of the American Hereford Cattle Breeders' 

 Association, the arduous work of publishing the 

 Herd Book was assumed by them, they pur- 

 chasing from us the copyright and volumes on 

 hand. To say that the work and expense .of 

 establishing the American Hereford Record was 

 very large is stating the case entirely within 

 the bounds of truth. 



There was a change in the form of the 

 American Hereford Record, beginning with 

 Volume VIII, arbitrarily undertaken, as we be- 

 lieve, by the Executive Committee,, without 

 proper thought and reference to the combined 

 wisdom of the Association, and we have watched 

 with interest the spirited and intelligent efforts 

 of Mr. T. F. B. Sotham to have the form we 

 instituted returned into use. 



We therefore derive much satisfaction from 

 the information recently conveyed to us in a 

 letter (1889) from Mr. Sotham, as follows: 

 "You will doubtless be pleased to know that my 

 repeated attacks on the error of the Executive 

 Committee in changing your form of record to 

 the 'old fashioned,' 'out of date' style of other 

 books, and common to other breeds, is about 

 to bear fruit. Though laughed at for my pains, 

 and called a 'pedigree crank' because I insisted 

 that the tabulated pedigree is the only simple 

 form, easy of comprehension, I have had victory 

 enough in seeing even the 'pooh-poohing' mem- 

 bers of the Executive Committee adopt this 

 form; forced to do so because of the custom 

 everywhere prevailing among Hereford breed- 

 ers. Your victory is coming, too, for, much 

 against his will, the leading Executive Commit- 



teeman has just told me that owing to the in- 

 creasing number of Herefords he is obliged to 

 go back to the original form established by you, 

 and forms have been ordered for preparing the 

 copy for Volume XXI after your original and 

 unique style." Mr. Sotham adds: "It is de- 

 cidedly unpleasant to set up an opinion in oppo- 

 sition to this willful and too powerful Execu- 

 tive Committee, but I have the true interests 

 of the Hereford cattle at heart, and being sure, 

 first, of being right, I have gone ahead in my 

 dear old father's belief that 'the right must in 

 the end prevail.' ' ; 



We would only add that when we established 

 the American Hereford Record we were as sure 

 as we are now that the Hereford will ultimately 

 be the world's prevailing cattle, and in found- 

 ing the American Herd Book we wanted that 

 foundation simple and solid. We foresaw the 

 increase of the breed and had we remained in 

 charge of the Record we should have begun with 

 Volume III to put more entries on a page. 

 The only reason we had for limiting the entries 

 (9) on a page in the Volumes I and II, got out 

 b} 1 " us, was, that with our unique form of entry, 

 more would limit the pages and make too thin a 

 volume. 



We trust that young Mr. Sotham's prediction 

 of a return with Volume XXI to the original 

 form may be verified. We believe such a return 

 inevitable ; and further, we believe that the day 

 will come when the unwarranted change of form 

 will be generally condemned and a reprint de- 

 manded that will practically eliminate Vol- 

 umes VIII to XX, inclusive, from the libraries 

 of Hereford breeders and prove the indefensible 

 work of the committee on these volumes a waste 

 of the Association's money. 



A BREEDERS' JOURNAL CARTOON OF 1883. 



(Mr. Miller informs President Scott of the fraudulent 



entries.) 



