140 



HISTORY OF IlEREFOED CATTLE 



bred bv Mr. Turner, purchased by Mr. Hewer 

 for ilr. James Walker, and the onFv reason 1 

 altered her name was 1 had one named "Spot' 

 in mv tirst imjiortation. 



"1 will give niv views on sheep breeding at 

 some future period. 1 think nothing is a better 

 test for pirotitable animals than those that get 

 the greatest weight of animal food with the 

 least vegetables. 



"Wm. Hy. 80THAM. 



-Fereh Lake Farm. April, 1841." 



We now give a letter from Mr. Win. King- 

 ham, whuh may be found m the "Cultivator," 

 on page llii : 



"Messrs. Editors of the 'Cultivator" : 1 have 

 been mdu-ced to take up my pen by the perusal 

 of a controversy between Messrs. Randall, Hep- 

 burn and Sotham. I have been acquainted with 

 the Hereford cattle for the last thirty years, as 

 a grazier, a dairyman and butcher. My father 

 u^ed to graze about fifty and dairy about seventy 

 cows, of ditferent breeds, Longhonis, Short- 

 horns and Herefords, in Oxfordshire, England. 

 For feeding, the Herefords are not surpassed by 

 any breed I have ever seen ; for the dairy, I do 

 not say they are invariably good milkers, 

 though they are, many of them, very good. I 

 never kept an account of the produce of a single 

 cow, but one of my neighbors says he knew a 

 Hereford cow that made sixteen pounds of but- 

 ter per week. As a butcher, which business I 

 worked at in London, and afterwards followed 

 in Berkshire for eight years, I say the Here- 



-«^m-^^^i2^^^fe^ 



MARCHIONESS, BRED BY E. CORNING. JR., ALBANY, 



N. Y. 

 (First prize, N. Y'. S. F. , 1SG7. From a drawiug by Page.) 



fords cut the best stall of l)eef I ever put a knife 

 in. Mr. Hepburn takes Youati for liis author, 

 and by his descrijition is led to believe the 

 Herefords to have been a trifling breed as lately 

 as six years ago. 1 know them to have been as 



good thirty years since as now, and whenever 

 they have been shown against the ShorthoriLs 

 have oftener gained the prize than their antago- 

 nists. Mv. Youatt must have been prejudu'cd 

 in favor of the Shorthorns, was ignorant of the 

 qualities of the Herefords, or got his informa- 

 tion from some one no better informed than 

 himself, Mr. Hepburn very ingeniously en- 

 deaMirs to impose on his understanding by sup- 

 posing the Herefords of Mr. Sotham to be the 

 produce of a stolen cross with the Durhams. I 

 have no doubt but Mr. H."s experience, if he 

 lives long, will convince him that his supposi- 

 tion was erroneous, and that he was misleading 

 the judgment of the community and doing in- 

 justice to the breeder and importer by suppos- 

 ing them guilty of iinjiosition. I should say, 

 as a bri'cder, the Herefords need no such cross ; 

 but 1 should say as a breeder, that many of the 

 Durhams, some of even Herd Book pedigrees, 

 would be materially improved bv a cross with 

 the Herefords, as having a tendency to lengthen 

 the rump and widen the hip of those whose 

 edge or round bones are wider than their hi]is, 

 the rump short and low, the tail high, and their 

 skin as tight over their rump as if stretched 

 over it with a pair of pincers. Such animals 

 have a thick, heavy thigli, the thick, coarse but- 

 tock, supported by a largi' bone, coarse leg, the 

 sides, as Culley describes, being one layer of 

 black tlesh across another, the shoulder bones 

 large, the points projecting. Such beasts arc 

 sure to be bad handlers, never get very thin, and 

 never get fat, will get fleshy, hut when it is 011 

 is no better than bull beef. With such animals a 

 cross from the Herefords would be a great im- 

 provement. 1 have haiidhHl many Hurhams 

 with high peeligree, with all the aliove objec- 

 tions. 1 never yet put my hand on a Hereford 

 that Avas not a good handler. My opinion of 

 the Herefords is that they are the nicest breed 

 of cattle, taken for all jnirposes, that walk the 

 earth, and would have bad some in 0\uo lonu' 

 ago if my means had been equal to m\- wishes. 

 "1 remain, gentlemen, yours respect fullv, 



"WlLLl.VM KlNGIIAil. 



"Springheld, Clark Co., 0., March 11, 1841." 

 We now give a letter from Mr. Wm. Cother, 

 of Oxfordshire, England, to Mr. Sotham, under 

 date of ]\rid(lle Aston, Oxfordshire, Feb. 1, 

 1841, which may be found on page 133 of the 

 "Cultivator" for 1841 : 



"Mr. Wm. H. Sotham: 1 am happy to in- 

 form you that our ram season closed very satis- 

 factory for the breeders of Cotswolds. Their 

 superiority is acknowledged by the extraordi- 

 nary demand and the high ])rices given for 

 them, which is very easily accounted for bv 



