522 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



at all acquainted with Hereford breeding, will 

 see by these pedigrees that they were among the 

 very best breeding in England or America, and 

 with these remarks we leave Mr. Rust to make 

 what he can out of it. 



"Near by Messrs. Culver & Mahoney's and 

 Mr. Zweck's, say twenty-five miles distant, on 

 the road to Denver, lived a Mr. Church, who 

 bred Herefords before Messrs. Culver & Ma- 

 honey or Mr. Zweck, and we presume their 

 preference for Herefords was largely from what 

 they saw of the results of Church's work. Of 

 Mr. Church Mr. Rust says, in speaking of a 

 cow that had come into the possession of Mr. 

 Culver from the Church herd: 



" 'Speaking of the Church Hereford cow 

 brings to mind the bad luck of the Church herd. 

 It was a very fine one, but the grass on the 

 home range did not appear to maintain it well 

 and so Mr. Church moved it over onto the rich 

 grass on the slope west of the range, and the 

 next winter most of them died. I don't know 

 that Shorthorns would have done any better 

 under the same circumstances, but no breed 

 could have done much worse/ 



"We would say in reference to Mr. Church 

 that he bought from Mr. Stone of Canada, a 

 Shorthorn and a Hereford bull, as early as 

 1870, possibly earlier, and he went over into 

 York State and bought two Hereford cows, one 

 of which had a Hereford bull calf by her side. 

 This comprised Mr. Church's investment in 

 Herefords, and his experience as between the 

 Hereford and Shorthorn led him to discard the 

 Shorthorn and use Herefords solely. His ranch 

 was twelve miles north of Denver on the road to 

 Longmont. He bred them on that range up to 

 the fall of 1874, we think, and the range be- 

 coming short he moved them east of Denver 

 to Hugo; but before moving, he took out two 

 or three car loads of three-year-old grade Here- 

 ford steers that he sold. They went to Buffalo 

 and sold on the market with no other feed than 

 they had taken from the short range, at seven 

 cents a pound live weight, and brought an aver- 

 age of some $90 at three years old. 



"When Mr. Church moved his cattle to Hugo 

 other ranchmen made great objections to their 

 coming onto that range ; but they went, and in 

 the spring following at the round-ups the 

 Church cattle were in so much better condition 

 than any others that nearly all of the ranchmen 

 on that range and in those round-ups became 

 converted to the Hereford breed of cattle. Mr. 

 Church stayed on the~ range near Hugo until 

 he moved his cattle to the west side of the 

 mountains. We have always understood that 

 the object in moving was to reach a point where 



he could keep his own herd by themselves and 

 make better improvement, and get the benefit 

 of his own bulls more fully than he could on 

 the range near Hugo. 



"'We have met a gentleman from the range 

 since this letter of Mr. Rust's was published, 

 and have learned that Mr. Church, in moving 

 his cattle, 1 reached a point of the range which 

 the Indians had burnt over, and relying upon 

 the hardihood of the cattle, he started to drive 

 them through this burnt range and get beyond 

 it to where he could find feed; that he drove 

 for some six days without feed or water, and 

 then, not knowing how much further he would 

 have to go, he turned and drove them back. 

 This resulted in a great loss, and the next win- 

 ter was a severe one, with heavy snows, which 

 prevented the cattle getting any feed, and a 

 large portion of the remaining cattle were lost, 

 owing largely to their sufferings on the burnt 

 range. This we suppose to be a true version of 

 the Church loss, but, of course, Mr. Rust did 

 not understand anything about these facts, or 

 he would have stated them and not left his 

 Shorthorn friends to build an argument on the 

 loss being occasioned by ordinary circumstances. 

 So much for that part of Mr. Rust's state- 

 ment. 



"There is in Estes Park, perhaps thirty or 

 forty miles from Messrs. Culver & Mahoney's, 

 another herd of Hereford cattle, known as the 

 'James herd of Herefords.' There have been 

 connected in this herd with Mr. James Messrs. 

 Ewart & Hart, and the last season Messrs. 

 Ewart & Hart bought out the James interest in 

 the Herefords, as we understand. Mr. Hart 

 was at Beecher last fall with a view to buying 

 Hereford bulls to give fresh blood to this herd. 

 He did not buy at Beecher, but we understand 

 that he bought elsewhere, and he proposed to 

 sell the bulls that they had been using. 



"In the May number of the 'Journal/ on page 

 305, Messrs. Ewart and Hart offer a choice lot 

 of grade Hereford bulls well bred, well marked, 

 and in fine condition, and four choice thorough- 

 bred Hereford bulls for sale; and in sending 

 their advertisements they said nothing of any 

 losses that might have been had." 



In the winter Mr. James was at Beecher look- 

 ing for Hereford bulls, and (1[ 368) was buy- 

 ing a large number of cows and heifers in Iowa, 

 largely of the Shorthorn blood, to take to Colo- 

 rado to establish a new herd. He did not buy 

 his Hereford bulls at Beecher, but he bought 

 them of Mr. T. J. Lewis, of Odebolt, Iowa. 



Mr. Rust says: "The James herd of Here- 

 fords and high grades in Estes Park is said to 

 have lost 100 head out of 140 during the past 



