THE HEREFORD. 



fordshire was of old part of the possessions of the Cambro-Britons, 

 but at a very early period it .fell under the dominion of the Anglo- 

 Saxons. t: The Herefordshire cattle," he remarks, " have that yellow- 

 orange color of the skin which distinguishes the Pembrokes and the 

 Devons, and those breeds, with that medium length of horn which 

 separates such breeds and varieties from the race termed ' Long- 

 horns.' " The breed as it then existed, he believed, " owed all its re- 

 putation to modern changes." Professor Low, of course, was re- 

 ferring to the " Hereford' 5 of his day, which has been much altered 

 since the beef boom of 1850, a.nd such a circumstance should always 

 be noted for the purpose of comparison. 



Mr. Edward Yeld, who was himself an eminent breeder, in giving 

 his decsription of the Hereford breed of cattle, says: " The important 

 accounts given of the breed of Hereford cattle during the eighteenth 

 century induces me to record what is within my own knowledge, and 

 also that derived from sources within my reach. Much of my know- 

 ledge is derived, however, from my acquaintance with a retired in- 

 telligent iarmer and breeder of Herefords, being himself a successful 

 competitor at the old Herefordshire Agricultural Society, and who 

 possessed a dozen or more handsome prizes of his own winning dur- 

 ing the last and present century namely, from 1770 to 1820, which 

 covers a period of fifty years. Going back to 1750, there were very ex- 

 cellent He'refords of two kinds, viz., the mottled-faced and the white- 

 iaced. By far the best breeds of mottled-faced Herefords were in the 

 possession of Mr. Wm. Galliers, of Wigmore Grange, and 

 that of the white-faced in the possession of Mr. Tully, 

 of Huntington, and Messrs. Tomkins and Skyrms. Stret- 

 ton. Before the close of 1799 Mr. Ben Tomkins obtained 

 the lead x and took a very prominent part for many yea'rs. Mr. Wil- 

 liam Galliers, before mentioned, and Mr. Ben Tomkins were on terms 

 of personal intimacy, and from the great similarity of their herds 

 there is every probability of their being derived from the s ime source 

 namely, from the herd of Mr. William Galliers, of Wigmore 

 Grange." 



With regard to the introduction of the Hereford breed of cattle 

 into Australia, one has only to follow the accounts given elsewhere 

 of the early importations of stock into New South Wales to learn that 

 Herefords were being imported from time to time by various breeders. 

 Mr. D. C. McConnell, of Cressbrook Station, Queensland, was, there- 

 fore mistaken when he stated some years ago as 'follows : " The first 

 Herefords imported to the Southern Hemisphere were three cows and 

 a bull introduced by the Cressy Company of Tasmania in the year 

 1825. The bull," says Mr. McConnell, " was called Billy, one cow 

 Beauty, another Matchless, and the third was unnamed." He further 

 adds : " They came from the besi herds in Herefordshire, but, un- 

 fortunately, their pedigrees were lost. It is certain they were fine 

 specimens of the breed, and upon these the Cressy Company built up 

 the foundation of their herd ; from this in their turn have sprung 

 most of the noted herds of Australia." Without for a moment doubt- 

 ing the correctness of that part of Mr. McConnell's statement relating 

 to the Cressy Company's importations, one is bound to state in the 

 face of it all that the Cressy Company were by no meanfc the' first 

 to import Herefords to the Southern Hemisphere. 



Messrs. Hobbler, Nowlan, and George Loder, of the Hunter River, 

 and Mr. Charles Reynolds, of the Paterson River, no doubt obtained 

 a large number of bulls and cows from Tasmania. But theiri Tas- 

 manian purchases formed but a small percentage of the number of 

 Herefords to be found in New South Wales prior to 1825, ,as can be 

 shown by reference to the records of the importation of those animals 

 to New South Wales, mentioned in another chapter of this work 



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