THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY 



359 



polled cattle has given rise to the 

 desire of securing polled Herefords. 

 This has finally been accomplished 

 through the work of a number of indus- 

 trious breeders, including Guthrie and 

 Gammon. The origin of polled Here- 

 fords is much the same as that of polled 

 Durhams, since they depend upon Here- 

 ford bulls and common muley cows. 

 Some difficulty was experienced in get- 

 ting a start with a herd of polled Here- 

 fords, since quite close breeding had to 

 be practiced. An organization was 

 formed, however, in 1900 and very satis- 

 factory progress is being made with the 

 polled Herefords. 



from horneu cows were hornless, and in 

 1S93 a two-year bull and six heifers were 

 selected from his progeny as a basis for 

 further experiments. The first bull 

 was named Discovery, and in 1898 four 

 additional horned Hereford heifers were 

 bred to a descendant of Discovery and 

 their calves were all hornless. Polled 

 Herefords are now distributed from 

 Wisconsin to Texas and various breed- 

 ers report entire success with them. 

 There is no tendency for the horns to 

 return and the progeny of Polled Here- 

 ford bulls are hornless in 60 to 90 per 

 cent of cases. This percentage compares 

 favorably with Angus or Galloway. 



Pig. 241 THIRD PRIZE ANGUS BULL AT INTERNATIONAL STOCK SHOW 1906 



They were first exhibited at the 

 Omaha Exposition in 1889 under the 

 name of Polled Kansans, but this name 

 was subsequently dropped. Some con- 

 troversy has been waged lately regard- 

 ing the quality of the Polled Herefords, 

 it being claimed on one side that in get- 

 ting rid of the horns, some of the de- 

 sirable qualities of the Herefords were 

 lost. This, however, is strongly denied 

 by other champions of the new breed, and 

 the point must be left for the future 

 development of the breed to settle. 



Development of the breed — In 1889, 

 Mr. W. W. Guthrie of Atchinson, Kan- 

 sas, discovered on his ranch a nearly 

 pure bred Hereford calf, which was 

 hornless. All of the calves by this bull, 



Polled Hereford clubs — The Ameri- 

 can Polled Hereford Cattle Club was 

 organized in 1900, and now has about 

 500 registered animals. The National 

 Polled Hereford Breeders' Association 

 established in 1902, also has a large reg- 

 istration and the supply of young bulls 

 is quite inadequate to meet the demand. 

 Under the rules governing registration 

 in the record book of this association, 

 "the produce of any bull in the Nation- 

 al Polled Hereford Record from any 

 cow in the American Hereford Record 

 and the produce of any cow in the Na- 

 tional Polled Hereford Record by a 

 bull in the American Hereford Record 

 is eligible. to registration in the National 

 Polled Hereford Record if such produce 



