120 



IIISTOKY OF HEKEFORD CATTLE 



a significant bearing on tiieir 'fair' millving 

 properties. Nor is it to be presumed tliat this 

 cross has resulted m very serious deterioration 

 to the Herefords m other respects. 



"Since writing the above the 'Cultivator of 

 November has come to hand, containing a com- 

 munication from Mr. Sotham on the subject of 

 the Herefords, in which lie takes the same posi- 

 tion with Mr. Bement in relation to their milk- 

 ing properties, and also denies the correctness 

 of other portions of my description of them, in 

 the essay already alluded to. Mr. Sotham has 

 doubtless imported some very valuable animals. 

 I have not had the pleasure of seeing them but 

 have conversed with several intelligent breed- 



MR. RUST'S GRADE HEREFORD OX, WEIGHT 3,700 LBS. 

 (The sensation ot the first N. Y. S. F.. 1841.) 



ers who have examined them closely, and who 

 speak of them favorably. One gentleman writes 

 me : 'They have nearly the size and breadth 

 of loin of the Durham, but are coarser in the 

 head and are not so handsome.' 



"This is certainly a very different descrip- 

 tion from that given by Mr. Youatt. How are 

 we to account for this discrepancy ? It is but 

 si.x years since Mr. Yodatt wrote, and his re- 

 marks, therefore, cannot be supposed to apply 

 to the breed as they existed 'twenty or thirty 

 years ago,' as suggested by Mr. Sotham. It is 

 well known, too, that his great work on 'British 

 C'attle' was published under the auspices of the 

 Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, 

 and that he was aided in it by the first breeders 

 in England, who are equally responsible with 

 himself for the correctness of his statements. 

 Writing with little individual interest or bias 

 of his own, it is perfectly apparent through his 

 whole work that it is his aim to present every 

 breed possessing any charms, in its most favor- 

 able coloring. The quotations made by me are 

 neither isolated nor garbled ones. The history 

 of the struggle between the Durhams and the 



Herefords, as well as the Devons, Lancashires, 

 etc., is the same throughout nearly all the most 

 fertile districts of England. In almost every 

 one the star of the Shorthorns has risen to the 

 ascendant. It strikes me as idle to talk of 'un- 

 just accusations,' 'prejudice and abuse,' as di- 

 rected towards any particular breed. The con- 

 test has been a warm one — many severe thmgs 

 have been said on both sides, but how are we 

 to suppose that the Herefords have been more 

 'abused' or called on to encounter more 'preju- 

 dice' than their rivals? One would naturally 

 infer precisely the contrary. The Herefords 

 are an indigenous breed — or, at all events, they 

 separated from the parent stock (the Devon) 

 at a period 'whereof the memory of man run- 

 neth not to the contrary.' On the other hand, 

 it is little less than a century since a little hand- 

 ful of cattle, in the hands of three or four 

 breeders, on the banks of the Tees, were at- 

 taining that superiority which has since as- 

 serted itself beyond intervening oceans, on the 

 then scarcely discovered Ohio. 'Prejudice' is 

 ordinarily enlisted on the side of antiquity and 

 opposition to innovation. The Herefords were 

 a known and favorite breed long before the im- 

 proved family of Shorthorns had their origin. 

 The Shorthorns were the innovators — innova- 

 tors in size, shape, and last, but not least, in 

 popular estimation, color. Is it not they instead 

 of their opponents which have been made the 

 particular victims of 'abuse' and 'prejudice?' I 

 confess I have always so regarded it. I will cite 

 one specimen of unfairness and 'abuse' which 

 has been frequently resorted to against them. 

 It is this: The advocates of other breeds in 

 making their pretended experiments between 

 improved Shorthorns and their own favorite 

 breed, in feeding properties, etc., have repeat- 

 edly selected the unimproved Shorthorn 

 (known as Lincolns, Teeswater, Holderness, 

 etc.) to make the trial with, and then publish 

 the result to the world as a fair experiment. 

 But enough of this. 



"Mr. Sotham differs as widely from Mr. Clay 

 as from Mr. Youatt. Mr. Clay says: 'The 

 Herefords resemble the Devons, the race of New 

 England cattle.' Do the Devons or New Eng- 

 land cattle approximate in size and breadth of 

 loin to the Durham? A single instance of this 

 kind might well be deemed an extraordinary 

 one. 



"I will not refer to Marshall, Lawrence, Cul- 

 ley, Loudan, or the other old English writers, 

 because it may be objected that the breed has 

 changed since their day [discretion the better 

 part here. T. L. M.]' It may be remarked, 

 however, that they speak of the Herefords in 



