382 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



which one took the first prize in the cow class at 

 Sherbourne the preceding year, and the other a 

 first prize as a heifer. 



From the foregoing account it will be seen 

 that Mr. James and his father before him had 

 a dairy of eighty Herefords for a half century, 

 that were successful beyond ordinary dairy 

 herds, for the purpose for which they were 

 used. 



The "Mark Lane Express" of May 24th, 1880, 

 says : "A correspondent writing from the Vale 

 of Blackmore in Dorsetshire states that he finds 

 Hereford cattle the better in that district than 

 any other breed, both for dairy purposes and 

 for beef, and keep themselves in better order, 

 with, the same amount of food and under the 

 same conditions of life. They are not such 

 large milkers as some other breeds, but their 

 milk is richer than that of the Shorthorns." 



In a paper on "Pedigree Cattle in Dairy 

 Herds/' by Mr. Joseph Darby, in Vol. 15, third 

 series of the Journal of the Bath and West of 

 England Agricultural Society, the following 

 testimony is given to the values of the Here- 

 ford cross-bred cow as a milker. 



"The Hereford has never been considered 

 much of a dairy animal, yet strange to state, 

 when allied to the Shorthorn, the effect causes 

 latent lacteal fertility of the breed to spring 

 at once into full development. Probably this 

 fact has not been stated so authoritatively be- 

 fore, but those who doubt may be referred to 

 Mr. E. C. Tisdale, Wolland Park Dairy, Kert- 

 sington, and it will be found that two or three 



of his very best cows are of this variety. In 

 fact, the one styled therein 'Old Hereford' 

 yielded twenty-three quarts per day in the first 

 month, and twenty-two quarts in the second and 

 third, going on in profit for eleven months, and 

 averaging for the whole of that period fifteen 

 quarts per day. There is not one in the entire 

 list that affords anything like such a record as 

 this, but another Hereford- Shorthorn, styled 

 'Comalis,' averaged 14.61 quarts per day for 

 19 months. Facts like these cannot be brought 

 too prominently before the public eye." 



It does not appear how these cows were bred ; 

 whether by Hereford bulls out of Shorthorn 

 cows or by Shorthorn bulls out of Hereford 

 cows. But the facts, as stated, show the value 

 of the Hereford blood in a cross with the Short- 

 horn for the dairy, because none of Mr. Tis- 

 dale's pure-bred Shorthorns were such good 

 milkers as these crosses, whatever they may 

 have been Hereford- Shorthorns, or Short- 

 horn-Herefords. It is quite certain that the 

 cross of the Hereford bull on the Shorthorn 

 cow will produce a better grazing animal than 

 the pure-bred Shorthorn, and the facts given 

 above show that cross-bred Herefords have 

 beaten pure-bred Shorthorns to put it only in 

 that way in one of the most noted herds of 

 dairy cattle which England can show. This 

 shows that what we have constantly advocated 

 is absolutely correct, namely, that where there 

 is sufficient keep, the Hereford bull on the top 

 will produce the most useful cattle to meet gen- 

 eral requirements all over the world. 



WABASH, PURE-BRED STEER. 

 Champion 2-year-old at Chicago, 1882. Weight 1940 Ibs. 



