264 CATTLE 



the feed lots of the corn belt, where they have met with great 

 favor on account of their hardiness and ease of fattening. The 

 influence of the grade Hereford in the feed lot is strikingly 

 shown in the large numbers of cattle of this breeding to be seen 

 in the stockyards of Chicago, Kansas City, or Fort Worth. 

 While crossing of pure-breds is not advised, a one-generation 

 cross of Hereford on Shorthorn or Aberdeen-Angus may pro- 

 duce a most excellent butcher's beast. 



The prolificacy of the Hereford is a noteworthy feature. There 

 are many cases on record of Hereford cows living to extreme 

 old age and continuing as active breeders in the meantime. 

 Mr. William Tudge writes of a cow in his herd that between 1873 

 and 1887 dropped sixteen calves. Mr. Murdo Mackenzie, noted 

 as a manager of large cattle-breeding and feeding interests in the 

 far western United States and in Brazil, is credited 1 with prefer- 

 ring the Hereford on account of its prolificacy. His calf crop, he 

 said, usually ran from 70 to 80 per cent when he used Hereford 

 bulls. At one time he put in bulls of another breed and the 

 calf crop dropped to 40 per cent. A return to the use of Here- 

 ford bulls was quickly reflected in the increase in the percentage 

 of calves dropped. 



Hereford families of note. While Shorthorn and Aberdeen- 

 Angus breeders give the family name based on some foundation 

 female, the custom among Hereford breeders is to use the name 

 of the sire as indicative "of the line of breeding. In reference 

 to this subject Mr. A. H. Sanders, long an able and interested 

 student of the breed, has written as follows : 2 " In so far as they 

 use family nomenclature at all, Hereford breeders commonly 

 group their breeding animals under heads that convey a definite 

 meaning. They have their Wiltons, Anxieties, Grove^d's, Garfields, 

 Beau Donalds, Perfection Fairfaxes, Disturbers, Repeaters, etc., 

 thus laying stress where it of right belongs, on the great producing 

 bulls." The following families are given as based on lines of 

 breeding that have attracted special attention since the opening 

 of the present century. 



1 The Hereford, 1917. A pamphlet published by the American Hereford 

 Journal. 



- The Story of the Hereford (1914), p. 1072. 



