2o8 RECORDS OF OLD TIMES 



Our American cousins, utilising my contention 

 some few years ago, determined to cross their own 

 home-bred cattle with Hereford bulls, to provide addi- 

 tional facilities for supplying beef to the English 

 market. When I was judging at the Herefordshire 

 show, I found out that all the young bull calves, of the 

 best breeders, were bespoken for more than a year 

 in advance, at exceptionally good prices, but in four 

 or five years it was discovered that the size of their 

 widely-spreading horns prevented their being packed 

 easily in the railway trucks for Chicago. Conse- 

 quently the American breeders rapidly dispensed 

 with the Herefords, and they now cross their cattle 

 with the Polled Angus breed, which have equally 

 good fattening powers, but, as their name implies, 

 have no horns whatever. 



But to return to our muttons, or rather to our 

 beef Paul Potter's bull is a red, poorly-shaped 

 animal, somewhat low in condition, but he has 

 exceptionally good hair on him, and the manner in 

 which that is painted shows extraordinary skill. On 

 the point of his shoulders, where the hair is longest, 

 summer flies are creeping about, and there are flies 

 also buzzing over the back of the famous beast. The 

 bull has his head up, and is bleating to call the 

 attention of some cows in a far off pasture. The 

 saliva is falling from his tongue and his open mouth. 

 He has evidently been licking the flies off his sides, 

 and the marks of his tongue are ivet with saliva, and 



' ' The Hague, with its splendid Rembrandts and over-rated Paul 



Potter.' Henry Stacy Marks, R..^., in Pen and Pentil Sketches. 



