338 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 



bone, especially the length and coarseness of the legs, the too 

 prominent hips, and the heavy shoulder bones. In 1819 he 

 removed to Warlaby, and died there in 1835, having given up 

 the Killerby estate to his son John, who with his brother 

 Richard ably sustained their father's reputation. 'Booth 

 strains' equally with ' Bates strains', the results of the work 

 of Bates of Kirkleavington, whose cattle we have seen at the 

 Oxford Show in 1839, and whose herd was dispersed in 1850, 

 have been the foundation of many famous herds, and can be 

 traced in many a pedigree animal of to-day. 



The palmy days of the Shorthorns were the ' seventies ' of 

 the last century, when they made fabulous prices. At the 

 great sale at New York Mills, in 1873, eleven females of the 

 Duchess tribe averaged 4,522 M^- 2^., and one cow sold 

 for 8,458 6s. %d. In 1877 Mr. Loder bought Third Duchess 

 of Hillhurst for 4,100 guineas; in 1876 Lord Bective gave 

 4,300 guineas for Fifth Duchess of Hillhurst, then 16 months 

 old ; and in 1875 the bull Duke of Connaught sold for 4,500 

 guineas. It was not likely that with the advent of bad times 

 these prices would continue, and nothing like them in the 

 Shorthorn world has occurred since. 



Herefords. 1 



Herefordshire cattle have long been famous as one of the 

 finest breeds in the world. Marshall, writing in 1788, does 

 not hesitate to say, ' The Herefordshire breed of cattle, taking 

 it all in all, may without risque be deemed the first breed of 

 cattle in the land.' Their origin has been accounted for in 

 various ways. Some say they were originally brown or 

 reddish-brown from Normandy or Devon, others that they 

 came from Wales, while it is recorded that Lord Scudamore 

 in the latter half of the seventeenth century introduced red 

 cows with white faces from Flanders. However, they do not 



1 Much of these accounts of Herefords and Devons is from the author's 

 articles in the Victoria County History. 



