INTRODUCTION 



11 



this seems to be merely a matter of fashion." 

 And when describing the points of a perfect 

 Longhorn he says; "Any color that can be 

 joined with the foregoing qualifications, it 

 being perhaps of little (if any) essential im- 

 port." Thus Bakewell, like Tomkins, disre- 

 garded color marks, and his improved Long- 

 horns varied in this respect, but were not called 

 in consequence the Brindle breed, the Pinch- 

 beck breed and the Pye breed. 



Instances are given in the first volume of the 

 Herd Book where the sire and dam are white- 

 faced and the offspring mottle-faced, and vice 

 versa. In the phraseology of the day, the sire 

 and dam would belong to the white-faced 

 breed, and the offspring the mottle breed. This 

 clearly illustrates the fallacy of taking color 

 marking as a guide to the breed during the 

 transition period of the Herefords. 



Tomkins never line bred color markings, 

 but rather used them together in every imag- 

 inable way. Their system was in the words of 

 the poet: 

 "White face, Pick face, Mottle face and Grey, 



Mingle, Mingle, Mingle, ye that mingle may." 



The Herefords were then in a state of com- 

 minglation with the Tomkins cattle, on whose 

 bodies color marks had no fixed abode, so that 

 at that time it was a matter of choice where 

 these should be placed on the future Hereford. 

 It could have been constituted a grey, a mottle 

 face or a white-face breed. The overwhelm- 

 ing choice was to stick to the old red with 

 white face markings, and although some old 

 breeders resisted this for a time, they ultimately 

 died or gave up the contest. 



The red with white face markings left liquid 

 by Tomkins have now through many years of 

 selection carefully obliterated the spotted face 

 and grey markings, and become typically fixed 

 and the true index of breed, which they were 

 not during the transition period. 



Doubtless the Tomkins cattle would have 

 spread much faster if B. Tomkins, Jr., had not 

 been so extremely jealous of others obtaining 

 his best blood. It is well known that he had 

 many of his best bulls killed at home for the 

 harvest men rather than others should have 

 them, and many of his best cows were resold by 

 the butchers for breeding purposes. The old 

 butchers bore universal testimony that the 

 Tomkins cattle were the most profitable butch- 

 ers' cattle they killed. 



Day of Credenhill, Bakerville of Weobley, 

 Preece of the Shrewd, Davies of Canon Pyon, 

 and others used to declare that for quality of 

 meat, associated with smallness of offal, none 

 they killed approached them. And Sinclair has 



shown in his history that all the old noted 

 herds, without exception, that could be traced 

 went back to what Hewer tersely called "Old 

 Tomkins' Prime Cattle." 



Beside the foregoing manuscript, prepared 

 by Mr. Bustin, I wish to acknowledge here his 

 great assistance m the preparation of the illus- 

 trations in this history. Without Mr. Bustin 's 

 help this great feature of the work would be 

 most lamentably lacking. His skillful search 

 has unearthed drawings and paintings that have 



TABLET OP BENJAMIN TOMKINS, JR., KING'S-PYON 

 CHURCH, HEREFORDSHIRE. 



been hid for years; he visited various parts of 

 England, securing photos of homesteads, farm 

 views, ancient drawings, paintings and engrav- 

 ings, etc., etc., which are invaluable to the 

 student of Hereford history. I wish to ac- 

 knowledge also the kind co-operation of Mr. 

 Geo. Leigh, of Aurora, 111., to whom I am in- 

 debted for many photographs of English Here- 

 ford breeders, their homes and their cattle. 



I would draw particular attention to the fact 

 that the illustrations in this work are, as far 

 as possible, reproductions of photographs from 

 life. The successful photograph of live ani- 

 mals is only a recent accomplishment, and not 



