30 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK r. 



was exhibited many years ago at Hereford. I believe there is no rule 

 to be considered of at all general application as to one colour being 

 more hardy than another in the breed of Herefords. One reason why 

 light reds or yellows are often less in esteem, may arise from the fact 

 that cattle, when in a state of disease, become lighter in colour. Many 

 persons also entertain an opinion that grey or roan is a colour indica- 

 tive of delicacy. But, I will ask, is it so considered among the Short- 

 horns ? There is at the present time, perhaps, more prejudice about 

 colour than at any former period. On what reasonable grounds is it 

 that the white-faced is preferred to the mottled ? This point may be 

 conceded to the former, that a herd of them exhibit a more desirable 



Photo by G. H. Parsons. 



Fig. 4. Hereford Heifer, " Princess Beatrice " 



Winner of over a dozen first prizes, including one in the two-year-old class 



at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show at Lincoln, 1907. 



The property of Mr. W. B. Tudge, Stepaside, Shropshire. 



uniformity ; but a similarity in size and form would be a higher aim 

 and a more important acquisition ; and in the advocacy and adoption 

 of either colour to the exclusion of the other, the faults prevailing in 

 each are often disregarded, and opportunities of reciprocal improve- 

 ment lost sight of. Mr. Andrew Knight has stated, in one of his 

 publications, that it is probable that the first specimens of the white-^ 

 faced were imported from the Continent, some cows of that colour 

 having been introduced into the country by a Lord Scudamore, and the 

 supposition seems to be somewhat strengthened by the variety having 

 only become numerous in the last century. Those who are so strongly 

 their advocates should be prepared with some better cause for their 

 preferences than their becoming fashionable. It would also be desira- 

 ble that we should know what is the cause that of late the buyers of this 

 breed for the purposes of stock are grown so fastidious as not to allow 



