INTRODUCTION 



Court. Being the favorite son he would have 

 his pick of tiie best of them, and the two herds 

 were afterwards bred conjointly for twenty 

 years, when on his father's death, in 1789, he 

 acquired the stock and farm at Wellington 

 Court. In the meantime B. Tomkins, Jr., had 

 acquired the Court House and Brook House 

 Farms, Kmg's-Pyon, in addition to the Black- 

 hall, so that the father and son together occu- 

 pied three and for a time four farms from 650 

 to 840 acres in extent. How closely they 

 worked together is shown by his having his 

 fathers stock and farm on his death. The 

 lives and work of father and son were so inti- 

 mately blended together that no wonder after 

 many years succeeding generations, without 

 close inquiry, regarded their work as that of 

 one man. "The father worked for 47 years 

 (from 1742 to 1789) and the son for about the 

 same number (1769-1815), and they worked 

 together for about thirty of the seventy-three 

 years of their joint breeding career. This oc- 

 cupying of several farms with separate home- 

 steads enabled them not only to keep more cat- 

 tle, but to keep the different strains distinct in 

 different places, enabling them to carry out 

 their system of line breeding without neces- 

 sarily using very near affinities. 



It has been imagined that they inbred their 

 cattle very closely, but this idea is not justified 

 by facts. It is well known that they bred all 

 the bulls they used, and that they kept several 

 at each homestead, thus enabling them to cross 

 in their own herds from selected variations in 

 desired directions without close in-breeding. 

 They likewise had a wide family circle breed- 

 ing the same variety of cattle, which gave them 

 a still wider range for the exercise of their 

 judgment and skill. 



When working alone we know' that these two 

 men achieved a most marvelous success. What 

 must have been the power of their united judg- 

 ments during the thirty years they worked to- 

 gether? 



Eyton says, 1846: "The Misses Tomkins 

 have been in possession of the same breed with- 

 out a cross since the period of their father's 

 death. They were in the habit of keeping four 

 or five bulls and whatever is bred from their 

 stock may be relied upon for the purity of the 

 blood." 



Here we have evidence to show that the 

 Misses Tomkins continued to follow their 

 father's and grandfather's system of breeding 

 in the male line for over thirty years after his 

 death on a single farm of less than 300 acres. 



Eyton says further: "During the latter por- 

 tion of ]\Ir. Tomkins' life he used none but 



bulls bred by himself, and did not cross with 

 any other stocks." 



As Eyton was here treating the work of the 

 two men as that of one he should have said: 

 "During the latter portion of Messrs. Tom- 

 kins' lives they used none fmt bulls bred by 

 themselves, and did not cross with any other 

 stocks." 



When B. Tomkins, Sr., practically ceased 

 crossing from outside sources is uncertain, but 

 most likely it was about the time he took Wel- 

 lington Court, m 1758, as there were then 

 herds of Tomkins cattle more or less pure-bred 



TABLET OF BENJAMIN TOMKINS. SR., IN WELLING- 

 TON CHURCH, HEREFORDSHIRE. 



at the Hill, New House, Weobley's Field, 

 Wooton, Court House, Canon Pyon, Wigmore 

 Grange, and probably other places outside the 

 .family circle. How quickly successful he was 

 is thus shown by the early and rapid spread of 

 his cattle amongst members of the family. 



Eyton says: "The bull which is often re- 

 ferred to as 'Silver Bull' he always considered 

 as the first great improver of his stock. There 

 is a prevailing opinion respecting this bull's 

 name, that it was given to him because he was 

 of a silver or grey color, but the fact is that he 

 was a red bull, with a white face, and a little 

 white on his back, and' his dam was a cow 

 called 'Silver.' " 



