142 PRINCIPLES OF BREEDING. 



(i 



an excellent judge of cattle, formed a very erroneous 

 opinion of the Herefords when he pronounced them to 

 be nothing but a mixture of the Welsh with a bastard 

 race of Long Horns, They are evidently an aboriginal 

 breed, and descended from the same stock as the 

 Devon. If it were not for the white face and some- 

 what larger head and thicker neck it would not at all 

 times be eas}'' to distinguish between a heavy Devon 

 and a light Hereford.'^ 



Mr. Gisborne says '' The Hereford brings good evi- 

 dence that he is the British representative of a widely 

 diffused and ancient race. The most uniform drove of 

 oxen which we ever saw, consisted of five hundred from 

 the Ukraine. They had white faces, upward horns and 

 tawny bodies. Placed in Hereford, Leicester or North- 

 ampton markets, they would have puzzled the graziers 

 as to the land of their nativity ; but no one would have 

 hesitated to pronounce that they were rough Here- 

 fords." 



Mr. Rowlandson, in his prize report on the farming 

 of Herefordshire, sa^^s "■ The Herefords, or as they have 

 sometimes been termed, the middle horned cattle have 

 ever been esteemed a most valuable breed, and when 

 housed from the inclemency of the weather, probably 

 put on more meat and fat in proportion to the food 

 consumed, than any other variety. They are not so 



