THE UNITED KINGDOM. 177 



There are lots of Hereford dairies in this county. In tfio year 1831 I sold t\ro balls 

 to cross Short-horns, and I know parties -vvho have crossed Hereford^ with Short-horns 

 and have coiue back again to tho Hereibrds. 



Mr. White writes me from Wiltshire as follows: 



I keep a dairy of ninety pure bred Hereford cows, which breed has been kept on this 

 farm for the last sixty years, and I have at all times endeavored to obtain the milkiest 

 strain I could, and I think I have now a herd of cows more adapted to dairy purposes 

 than any other Hereford herd in this country, I have made fair trials between the 

 Hereford and Short-horn as to profit, and I give my decided preference to the former. 



The testimony from these two herds is the most valuable that could 

 possibly be obtained as to the dairy capabilities of the breed, as they 

 are the largest, and have been longest established of any in existence. 

 I have received letters similar in tenor to the above from various 

 smaller breeders in different counties, and I have not been able to dis- 

 cover an instance where breeders or dairymen have changed back to 

 other breeds after starting in with Herefords. I had hoped to send 

 with this report some figures giving actual inilk and butter products, 

 &c., but I must leave them for a supplementary report, as I have al- 

 ready detained this one over a month, waiting for the promised sta- 

 tistics. But it is not so much as milkers that the United States are 

 interested in the breed, but as beef producers ; and that in this capac- 

 ity they are indeed largely interested will be proved when I say that 

 the extraordinary demand for pedigree Herefords from the United 

 States in the last few years has so increased the price of these cattle 

 that the Hereford breeders are looked upon with envy by other breed- 

 ers throughout the kingdom as having u struck a bonanza." That 

 Herefords will repay a large expenditure is undeniable. Their tremen- 

 dous development of flesh, their activity as feeders, their insensibility 

 to changes of climate, their hardiness, their quiet and placid tempers, 

 are just precisely the qualities needed for the improvement of our West- 

 ern, Texas, and " Spanish " cattle. Their bulls, too, have a marvelous 

 faculty of impressing their qualities on their get, and there is many a 

 half-breed Hereford which is absolutely indistinguishable in appearance 

 and quality from a pure bred one, so completely is the influence of the 

 darn eliminated. Another point. The Hereford is specially strong 

 just where our Western cattle are weak, viz, in the development of the 

 flesh on the back. The back of a well ripened Hereford steer has been 

 compared to a table, and the back of a Texas steer to a wedge. Volumes 

 could not say more. 



There were two remarkable sales of Herefords during the past year ; 

 one, the dispersal of Mr. Pitt's herd at Ohadnor Court, aud the other 

 the dispersal of Mr. Turner's herd at Leen. Mr. Pitt established his 

 hard in 1842 from four celebrated cows of the day. I present a little 

 statement of the amounts received by Mr. Pitt at this sale. 



K"inety -one animals averaged about $375 each. 



The average of $651.50 for twelve two-year-old heifers has never be- 

 fore been equalled in England in any breed. 

 H. Ex. 51 12 



