336 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



where no breeding is done, but bullocks are 

 bought at from one to two years old, mainly the 

 latter age, and put in a straw yard and on cake 

 during the winter, and on. grass in the spring, 

 and from these pastures to the London market 

 in July, August and September. In talking 

 with one of the leading graziers in Buckingham- 

 shire, he said that whenever he took 'a rear of 

 Herefords they would all go to market at once' ; 

 that is, they were even in quality and character, 

 while with Shorthorns there had to be from two 

 to three drafts to get them off. There is then 

 but one reason for the character the Herefords 

 have taken, and this one is merit. 



cattle that dare make the test of merit from 

 birth to the butcher's block with the Hereford. 

 "This test having been refused by old and 

 experienced breeders, we tendered some months 

 since the proposition to Messrs. J. V. Farwell 

 (fl 240-241) and T. W. Harvey, who have been 

 for the last two or three years establishing re- 

 spectively, herds of Polled- Angus and Shorthorn 

 cattle. We could have taken a farm on lease with- 

 in forty miles of Chicago, well adapted to experi- 

 mental work in the breeding of cattle. We pro- 

 posed to these gentlemen to take one hundred 

 cows and to breed one-third of them to Short- 

 horn, one-third to Polled, and one-third to 



COMPANY GATHERED AT CHADNOR COURT SALE, 1883. 

 (The X mark indicates Mr. George Pitt.) 



"America is pre-eminently a grazing country, 

 and that breed which can make meat of first- 

 class quality, from grass, must always be the 

 top animal, and if the same beast is a first-class 

 feeder, it will need only a trial to make him the 

 top beast of the world. We have been so fully 

 impressed with this from the start, that we have 

 offered to place him in competition with other 

 breeds, letting them choose the manner in which 

 they should be bred and kept, and we would 

 take them, in any way. This has been declined, 

 and we say that there is not another breed of 



Hereford bulls, for a term of ten years. We 

 laid before them the estimated cost of such an 

 experiment; $15,000 would have been the in- 

 vestment needed, $5,000 for each. We proposed 

 to take one-third for the Herefords if each of 

 these gentlemen would take a third each for the 

 other breeds. We laid before them the fact that 

 such an experiment was needed, and that it 

 would be a great benefit to the world if such 

 experiment could be made, that would test, dur- 

 ing a term of years, the character and merits of 

 the three breeds of cattle. They, however, de- 



