CHAPTER XXVI 



THE HEREFORD 



The native home of the Hereford breed of cattle is the county 

 of Hereford, located in the upper part of the lower third of Eng- 

 land, with Wales for its western boundary. The county is gently 

 rolling in places, while in other sections it is quite hilly, and 

 superior grazing generally prevails. Mixed farming is practiced in 

 Herefordshire. Wheat, barley, oats, root crops, and hay are the 

 staples. This also is a leading apple-growing section of England. 

 Here Herefords are extensively bred, almost to the exclusion of 

 all other kinds of cattle. They are also found more or less in the 

 adjoining counties of Shropshire and Worcester in England, and 

 in Radnor, Brecknock, and Monmouth counties in Wales. 



The origin of the Hereford, like that of other English breeds, 

 is clouded in obscurity. Some have regarded the Hereford as 

 descended from the aboriginal cattle. This opinion has been 

 expressed by Youatt and by T. Duckham, the latter once prom- 

 inent as editor of the " Hereford Herdbook." In 1788 William 

 Marshall, a well-known English judge of cattle, gave it as his 

 belief that the Hereford might be regarded as the first breed on 

 the island. This was written when the Longhorn and Devon 

 were popular and the Shorthorn was coming into favor rapidly. 

 Some have accounted for Hereford color and type as due to the 

 importation into Herefordshire by Lord Scudamore, prior to 1671, 

 of some white-faced cattle from Holland or Flanders. It is worth 

 noting here that in the Dutch galleries of fine arts one will see 

 many old paintings of cattle in which red bodies and white faces 

 are not unusual. One of the great paintings of the world, " The 

 Bull," in the gallery at The Hague in Holland, by Paul Potter, 

 who lived from 1625 to 1654, has in the group a white-faced, 

 red-bodied cow, much like many plain-looking Herefords of to-day. 

 In his study of breed evolution Professor James Wilson states 1 



1 The Evolution of British Cattle, p. 103. London, 1909. 



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