18 DUAL PURPOSE CATTLE 



Sale of Mr. Reeve's stock, at Wheycurd Hall Farm, Wighton Eleven match- 

 less blood-red cows in calf, two three-year-old heifers in calf, eleven two-year-old 

 heifers in calf, and a two-year-old blood-red bull, one of the most perfect animals 

 in the Kingdom. 



In the work of breeding and selection Reeve had from the year 

 1810 the aid of the Hudsons (fellow tenants), and of Mr. G. B. George, 

 farming at Eaton, on the Norwich county border, whose stock in 1822 

 were so many that he sold by auction twelve blood-red polled cows 

 and a year-old blood-red polled bull. Richard England, John Reeve's 

 aider, had by 1817 bought the Binham Abbey Farm, and his son 

 Richard then occupied it. Soon after, this young farmer married 

 Reeve's daughter, and thenceforward joined in the breeding and se- 

 ection of the stock until 1844 some time after Reeve's death. His 

 son Richard recalled in June, 1873, the memory of "thirty cows of a 

 beautiful red. I doubt if there are any better at the present time." 

 That the Reeve stock were used by a number of breeders from 1813 

 on their old style polled "homebred," and that his son John bred them 

 at Walsingham would seem to be the fact. 



The County Societies, however, ignored them till 1846, providing 

 classes for Devons, Shorthorns, and Herefords, while Ayrshires were 

 brought in as dairy cattle. A fair number of Suffolk men were more 

 liberal in their support, but so late as January, 1862, others would 

 be content even with a cross-bred if only it was polled and born in 

 Suffolk. Fortunately, the Council of the R. A. S. E. ended this bit 

 of localism by requiring for the 1862 show, to be held in what is now 

 Battersea Park, London, that the cattle, which had in previous years 

 been competitors in the "Any Other Breed" classes, should be ex- 

 hibited as "Norfolk and Suffolk Red Polled." 



Continuous progress was delayed by the outbreak of rinderpest 

 in 1866-77. Well-bred herds fell victims, and but for the selection 

 in the year 1864, by Benjamin Brown, a small Thursford farmer, 

 there would have been no certainty that any of the Reeve stock yet 

 existed. 



THE GROUNDWORK 



The lovers of the "Red Polled" under which title the Herd Book 

 was issued when the cattle had won a place in the United States 

 have to thank a few men on each side of the Atlantic for their en- 

 thusiasm in making good the damage that has been sustained by the 

 "new breed;" and yet others for their care in recording the results by 

 which to demonstrate what heredity has done for it. 



When my offer to prepare a Herd Book was accepted by breeders 

 in the N. A. A. Showyard, in June, 1873, no Standard Description was 

 available. A small- company met in Norwich and drafted what was 

 needed. They were not very hopeful of success, since they knew that 

 very few records had been kept. Newspaper duties leaving Saturdays 

 available, I visited many of the breeders, and week by week gave 

 the public the information thus acquired. Interest was aroused. 

 This led to the Rev. George Gilbert, Vicar of Claxton, near Norwich, 

 one of the few amateurs who had mastered Shorthorn pedigrees, and 

 whom "The Field" accordingly retained for its cattle department, to 

 call on me. Being of a very old Norfolk family, to whom stock and 

 breeding was a pleasure, he offered his aid. We examined all avail- 

 able Herd Books, and were agreed that most of them were wanting 

 in definiteness. In view of what my personal enquiries and notes 

 made available, Mr. Gilbert suggested the grouping of cows into 

 families, arranging the groups under Place or Personal Names, each 

 Foundation Cow in a Group having a number added to the Group 

 letter as its ancestress of a Family. 



