HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



523 



winter," and ho says ho "does not know that 

 Shorthorns would have done any better under 

 the same circumstances, but no breed could 

 have done much worse." 



We wrote a letter of inquiry to Mr. James 

 which,, with his reply, we give as follows: 



BEECHEB, ILL., May 31, 1884. 

 Mr. W. E. James, Hotel-keeper, Estes Park, 



Colo. : 



Dear Sir: I have a report written by Geo. 

 W. Rust, from Boulder, that the James herd of 

 Herefords and high grades have lost 100 out 

 of 140 head of cattle. Please advise me what 

 foundation there is for such report, and the 

 circumstances and oblige. I understand you 

 bought a lot of thoroughbred bulls from Mr. 

 T. J. Lewis, of Odebolt, Iowa. Any informa- 

 tion in reference to the cattle interest will be 

 appreciated. My bulls have all been sold that 

 are old enough for service. 



Very truly yours, T. L. MILLER. 



ESTES PARK, COLO., June 7, 1884. 

 Mr. T. L. Miller, Beecher, 111. : 



My Dear Sir: Yours of May 31st just at 

 hand and contents noted. I know no reason 

 for such a report, as there has been no such loss 

 in Estes Park. In fact, 100 head will more 

 than cover the whole loss of the Park. My loss 

 was twenty-seven head out of 144 head of Iowa 

 heifers, and most of those were heifers that got 

 injured in shipping. Yet, we have had a very 

 hard winter for this part of the country. I 

 believe the loss of cattle to be very large in 

 North Park, as the snowfall was very heavy 

 in that Park and laid on the ground for about 

 three months. Our Hereford cattle have done 

 very well indeed the past winter, and there has 

 been a lively inquiry for young animals, both 

 thoroughbred and grades, but they could not 

 be found sufficient for the demand, which ought, 

 and shortly will, stimulate the breeding of 

 more Hereford cattle. 



Yes, I with my friend, Mr. P. J. Pauly, Jr., 

 bought fifteen head of thoroughbred Herefords 

 from T. J. Lewis, of Odebolt, Iowa, and I -wrote 

 you from Marshalltown, Iowa, of my purchase, 

 stating that I should not be back to Beecher on 

 that trip. I think I wrote you on the 29th day 

 of December. Glad to see that the demand has 

 been good for thoroughbred stock. I remain 

 yours sincerely in anything that can be truth- 

 fully said or done for the white-face cattle. 

 Yours respectfully, ' W. E. JAMES. 



In Vol. V, page 593, of the "Breeders' Jour- 

 nal," we republished the following letter from 



Mr. W. E. Campbell to the "Breeders' Gazette": 

 "Much has been said of late through your 

 columns in reference to Shorthorns and Here- 

 fords as range cattle by Geo. W. Rust, and others 

 who have had little practical experience with 

 rival breeds upon the plains, where cattle are 

 compelled to rustle for a living, not wholly 

 when the air is soft and balmy and the grass 

 green and abundant, but when it is dry and 

 hard and even covered with snow for days and 

 perhaps weeks at a time, the thermometer indi- 

 cating 20 degrees or more below zero, driven 

 before pitiless winds or forced to seek shelter 

 beneath the rugged banks of hollows and ra- 

 vines, with only snow for a bed and an angry 

 sky for a cover. These are the conditions 

 through which all range cattle are compelled 

 to pass or perish; and this is why our ranch- 

 men have been testing the merits of rival breeds, 

 and have generally adopted the Herefords on 

 account of their hardihood, activity and self- 

 reliance in time of need. This, coupled with 

 their aptitude to fatten on grass without other 

 feed, and their wonderful impressiveness as 

 sires, will always make the white-faces more 

 popular than any other breed with our ranch- 

 men. 



"I was once as staunch an advocate of Short- 

 horns as my friend Mr. Rust. Being familiar 

 with them from early childhood I almost lived 

 and swore by them, and I was one of the first 

 men to attempt the improvement of Texas and 

 range cattle in the Indian Territory by the use 

 of thoroughbred Shorthorn bulls. My atten- 

 tion was first called to the Herefords by the 

 early articles of T. L. Miller in a paper pub- 

 lished in your city, and though I thought his 

 claims very extravagant and unreasonable, I 

 decided to test their merits at my own expense 

 for my own satisfaction and, notwithstanding 

 the abuse and criticism I then received for us- 

 ing my own sweet counsel, I have never had 

 cause to regret my experiments, one -of which 

 I will relate to your readers just as the facts 

 occurred, and they can draw their own con- 

 clusions. 



"After making a number of small tests that 

 were decidedly favorable to the Herefords, I 

 determined to test the breeds thoroughly on a 

 rigid and extended plan. I therefore went East 

 and bought a carload of twenty-six Shorthorns* 

 and a carload of twenty-five Herefords and 

 shipped them on the same train to the terminus 

 of the railroad, and then drove them some 

 ninety miles to my ranch, where they were all 

 turned loose with my ranch cattle. When the 

 heat of summer came the Shorthorns could be 

 seen standing along the streams or in the shade, 



