344 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



Tully, Huntington, Hereford; fed by Mr. West- 

 car, Aylesbury, Bucks. (See illustration.) 



The English Journal, "Agriculture, the Ten- 

 ant Farmer's Journal/' says of the ox as fol- 

 lows: "In 1799, the Smithfield Club was 

 founded. From the Herefords this winner came, 

 and a noble ox he was, as we find an authentic 

 record that in height he stood G feet 7 inches, 

 his girth having been 10 feet 4 inches while his 

 weight was 247 stone, or nearly 31 cwt. [3,450 

 pounds, American weight T. L. M.] This reads 

 far above the figures that serve to note propor- 

 tions at the present time, but as to this it is well 

 to mention that this ox had attained the age of 

 seven years, consequently his full growth had 

 been obtained. There is a striking difference 

 between the Hereford ox of 1799 and 1884, al- 

 though both belong to the same pure breed, but 

 an interval of eighty-five years separated them. 

 During that somewhat long period much waa 

 done to improve the type and characteristics. 



DOWNTON CASTLE, HEREFORDSHIRE. 

 (Photo of 1902.) 



The ox of 1799 had worked three or four years 

 as was the custom in those days, whereas the 

 present show specimens for the greater part are 

 spared all efforts in seeking their food, and they 

 never work. It is not our desire to underrate 

 the oxen of olden time. As working animals 

 they might have been immensely superior to 

 such as we now possess, and no doubt they were. 

 But for show purposes work is decidedly against 

 the ox, inasmuch as it bares the shoulders, and 

 thins the neck, both of which are serious defects 

 in the opinion of the best judges of stock. If 

 we make this allowance for our champion, and 

 a little also for the hollow-back labor frequently 

 occasioned, we find him a great, fine ox, and can 

 picture him to have been almost a team of him- 

 self, although according to our modern standard 

 of symmetry he might be somewhat below it. 

 Be this as it may, we can, however, point to the 



fact that Herefords have been vastly improved 

 upon those of last century, and that their repu- 

 tation was never so wide and pronounced as at 

 the present time. As we propose giving several 

 illustrations in this journal, giving the early 

 type of Herefords, a few remarks on the ac- 

 cepted history of the breed may be of interest 

 to our readers. 



"The origin of Herefords is obscure, but it 

 dates back many centuries, and in all proba- 

 bility to the reign of King John. Speed has 

 recorded the existence at that period of 'white 

 cattle' in the adjoining county of Brecknock, 

 and there is no authentic account or tradition, 

 even, that the black cattle of the Principality 

 were other than we now find them ; it is pretty 

 safe to conclude that no admixture of white 

 breed has ever taken place. From time imme- 

 morial Welsh cattle have been black, and if 

 occasionally on the borders a Hereford cow pro- 

 duced a chance calf with black markings, that 

 calf never became a breeding animal, but was 

 drafted at the first opportunity. 



"But should these white cattle have been in- 

 troduced into Herefordshire and their ex- 

 istence at the period mentioned seems beyond 

 reasonable doubt the origin of the present 

 Herefords is comparatively easy to account for. 

 Now, of what was a Hereford primarily com- 

 posed ? The answer of the physiologist, viewing 

 the type of to-day, would be that the parents 

 were red and white. Nothing is more certain 

 than that the markings of the Hereford have 

 been in a way created by most careful and con- 

 tinuous breeding. . The white face with red 

 body were not nature's colors, they were not 

 spontaneous, but came as the result of mating 

 the white breed referred to with the red cattle 

 that possibly had long occupied the valley of 

 the Wye, Lugg, Frome, Arrow and Teme. 



"During the Saxon era the county of Here- 

 ford was strongly guarded by the English 

 against the inroads of the Welsh chieftains, and 

 this, no doubt, led to the introduction of red cat- 

 tle from other parts of the kingdom. In these 

 early times herds of cattle usually followed in 

 the wake of armies, and it is extremely probable 

 that the aboriginal breed of Sussex and Devon, 

 which stocked the southern counties, was dis- 

 patched thither in considerable numbers where 

 many of them bred, and thus stocked the Here- 

 ford district. But whatever might have been 

 brought about after this manner there is no 

 uncertainty as to the dark red and mottled- 

 faced cattle of Herefordshire having been some- 

 what plentiful in the last century. For several 

 hundred years the horned stock of the country 

 was comparatively isolated from its kindred 

 breed by the inferior cattle of the large dairying 



