HEREFORD CATTLE 199 



a good deal of barley is grown. From Ludlow we 

 turned, however, into a minor valley which traverses 

 the high land between the Teme and the Severn and 

 is situated almost entirely upon the Old Red Sand- 

 stone, running between the two Clee hills, outliers of 

 carboniferous rocks which have been preserved by 

 caps of basalt now extensively quarried for road stone. 

 In this upland district the Old Red gives rise to easy 

 working strong loams ; and because of the elevation, 

 600 ft.-7oo ft., the farms are mostly in grass, only 

 about one-fifth or less being under the plough. The 

 grass is good and abundant enough in the soft climate 

 which prevails, but it is rarely of sufficient quality to 

 fatten stock, and the whole of these Shropshire and 

 Worcestershire uplands are essentially breeding dis- 

 tricts. It is, in fact, typical Hereford country, and 

 many even of the smaller farmers possess very good 

 workaday strains of the favourite white-faced breed. 

 Away from the rich pastures of the valleys the farmers 

 can hardly hope to grow on their stock fast enough for 

 show purposes and build up a trade in pedigree cattle ; 

 and some little jealousy also seems to exist between 

 the Shropshire breeders and the Hereford men, who 

 claim to be guardians of the true type. Thus a certain 

 number of other breeds of cattle are finding their way 

 into the country. 



On one farm we visited it was the custom to buy 

 Shorthorn heifers, which are allowed to rear one calf 

 and are then sold as milch cows just before calving 

 for the second time, the second calf being bought back 

 and reared by one of the other heifers. Thus, in a 

 general way, each animal bought had to rear two 

 calves, and was sold in its most profitable condition 

 for the milk trade. On another farm we found 

 Galloways had been introduced in order to obtain 



