HISTORY OF HEEEFORD CATTLE 



25 



that he had been permitted to examine Mr. 

 Westcar's books, and made selections as of the 

 Herefords which he had sold for £100 ($500) 

 each, and he found between 1799 and 1811 

 twenty oxen sold for £2,123 ($10,615), or 

 $531.00 each, and says that if he had selected 

 such as sold for £80 ($400) each, the list would 

 have been very largely increased. 



Selecting from his sales from 1799 to 1811, 

 cattle that had sold for $500.00 or over, there 

 were twenty head that averaged $531.00, and 

 the highest priced ox sold for $737.00 — all sell- 

 ing to butchers. 



In the year 1812 or 1813 he made a sale of 

 fifty oxen at Smithfield for $250.00 each. 

 These are the sales of which I find an account, 

 though he fed and grazed 200 head or more 

 each year, which found a market in London. 



I have selected these two feeders, Westcar 

 and Campbell, as coming nearer or contempo- 

 rary to the Messrs. Tomkms' work, than any 

 other. These men were graziers as early as 

 1799, and were experienced as graziers, feeders 

 and sellers. 



William Marshall, contemporary historian of 

 Tomkins, Westcar, Campbell period, wrote in 

 1788, describing the cattle of the west of Eng- 

 land, that the great writer Speed said in 1627, 

 "that the Hereford breed of cattle, taking it 

 all in all, may, without risk, I believe, be 

 deemed the first breed of cattle in this Island." 

 Here we have the fixed data of Speed in the 

 year 1627, who was a historian, writing of Eng- 

 land, Wales and Scotland. 



Marshall was a native of Yorkshire, and jour- 

 neyed all over the country, collecting facts 

 illustrative of the various agricultural districts, 

 and making inquiries as to the breeds of cattle, 

 horses, and sheep, for facts to be used in a 

 work published by him, entitled "Rural Econ- 

 omy of the West of England." 



Marshall gives a description of the Hereford 

 ox, as he found him in 1788, which it is well 

 to quote here: "The general appearance, full 

 of health and vigor, and wearing the marks of 

 sufficient maturity, provincially oxenish, not 

 steerish, or still in too growing a state to fat; 

 th,e countenance open, cheerful, pleasant; the 

 forehead broad, the eye full and lively; the 

 horns bright, tapering and spreading; the head 

 small; the neck long and tapering; the chest 

 deep; the bosom broad and projecting forward; 

 the shoulder bone thin and flat. No protuber- 

 ance in bone, but full and mellow in flesh; the 

 loins broad, the hips standing wide and level 

 with the spine; the quarters long and wide at 

 the nache; the rump with the general level of 

 the back, not crooping or standing high and 



sharp above the quarters; the tail slender and 

 neatly haired; the barrel round and roomy; the 

 carcass throughout being deep and well spread; 

 the ribs broad and standing close and flat on 

 the outer surface, forming a smooth and even 

 barrel; the hindmost large and full length, the 

 bone small and snug, not prominent: the thigh 

 clean and regularly tapering; the leg u]jright 

 and short, the bone below the hough small; the 

 cod and twist round and full; the flank large, 

 the feet of a middle size; the flesh everywhere 

 mellow, soft, and yielding to the touch, espe- 

 cially on the. chine, the shoulder and the ribs; 

 the hide mellow and supple, of a middle thick- 

 ness and loose on the nache and huckle: the 

 coat neatly haired, bright and silky, its color 

 a middle red; with a bald face, the last being 

 esteemed characteristic of the true Hereford- 

 shire breed." 



We submit that this description, written 

 over one hundred years ago, will pretty well 

 answer for to-da-\ 



SILVER COW. CALVED 1806. BRED BY GEORGE 



TOMKINS. 



(From an old painting.) 



Marshall also says that "At the Hereford fair 

 on October 20th, 1788, we saw^ about a thou- 

 sand head of cattle, chiefly of the Hereford 

 breed. A large proportion of them were grown 

 oxen, full of flesh. The most valuable collection 

 I have met with," and then he adds : "'Out of 

 Smithfield, by much the finest show I have ever 

 seen." 



Mr. Fowler, on another page, gives an ac- 

 count of Mr. Westcar's visit to the Hereford 

 October Fair with the Duke of Bedford and 

 Lord Berners, to which we call attention. 



As stated, Mr. Westcar took an active part 

 in the organization of Smithfield Cattle and 

 Sheep Society, afterwards changed to the 

 "Smithfield Club," an account of which we 

 have thought best to adopt, supplemented by 

 items that I find in the "Annals of Agricul- 

 ture." (tl 16) 



