CHAF. i. HEREFORD CATTLE. 81 



a tinge of black about the head, neck, and legs, when it can be well 

 ascertained that some of the best and finest specimens of the old 

 Hereford breed have been so marked, accompanied, too, with black 

 noses, against which there is also much prejudice existing among 

 many. I never heard that the eminent breeder Mr. Benjamin Tomkins 

 was in the habit of rejecting a good animal on account of its colour, 

 and, perhaps, there have been none of equal eminence whose attention 

 was less directed to that point. But if he had a preference it was, 

 perhaps, for the grey, a colour he began with and esteemed to the last. 

 If Mr. Tomkins was a disregarder of colour, so also was Mr. John 

 Price. He selected of Mr, Tomkins all the three varieties of colour 

 in Herefords ; not that he might possess specimens of each, but find- 

 ing animals of each variety possessing the form and qualities he was 

 seeking. From this inattention to colour on the part of Mr. Tomkins 

 and Mr. Price, there have gone about many erroneous notions that 

 their breeds were not pure Herefords. Is it likely, I would ask, that 

 either the one or the other, equally tenacious about the pure descent 

 of their herds, and knowing so well the time and difficulty of wiping 

 out a bad stain, would so far commit themselves as to cross too with an 

 alien stock? I consider the. idea to have originated entirely from the 

 fact that I have adverted to their indifference about colour. 



" There is, unfortunately for the improvement of Hereford cattle, 

 too little attention paid to the true principles of form an object which 

 the late Mr. Price long and unceasingly pursued and it must be 

 regretted that it is not more appreciated in the native county of the 

 breed; the breeders generally contenting themselves with the possession 

 of a few points, which they consider all important, and which give the 

 animal a striking appearance to common observers, without, however, 

 that proportion oi parts which it is so desirable to attain. But to go 

 more into detail I think the formation of the fore-quarter is receiving 

 less attention than it ought, the capacity of the chest in particular, and 

 the ribs which enclose it. The posterior ribs attaching to the loin, the 

 hips, and the rump, seem to occupy the exclusive attention of too 

 many. This also, it is commonly thought, must be accompanied by a 

 very soft touch, in preference to one moderately firm and elastic ; it is 

 also considered an advantage if the animal is large a term often 

 erroneously given to one standing on high legs, without corresponding 

 width and depth of frame. Neither is the malposition of the fore-legs 

 considered of much detriment to the animal ; so little attention having 

 been given to the fore-quarter, the advantages or disadvantages of fore- 

 legs crooked or straight have not been properly estimated. There has 

 been, too, an anxious desire to increase the width of the hips, often to 

 the sacrifice of other parts the middle of the loin and the thigh. An 

 attempt also to get the rump too long leads to a deficiency in the 

 twist, a fault which I fear is rather on the increase with Herefords in 

 general. No animal of the cow kind can be called complete in form, 

 in which the under points are not as well furnished as the upper ; and 

 yet how often do we see a striking disproportion ! The shoulders in 

 Hereford cattle are liable to but little objection, being for the most 



