HISTORY OF HEREFOED CATTLE 



159 



their first appearance at tlie sliow at Saratoga, 

 which I believe was the end of them. 



I may be called "pugnacious," "fire and tow," 

 and many iiard names for saying what I do, but 

 who can speak and write patiently in defence 

 of Herefords with such men to encounter? I 

 can be as courteous as any man with reason- 

 able men to deal with ; but every impartial 

 man must admit that I have had a certain clique 

 of Shorthorn men to oppose, who were deter- 

 mined to drive me out of market with the Here- 

 fords. 



There are some kinds of men in the world 

 whom the truth cannot reach, and such men are 

 most apt to accuse others of untruth unfounded- 

 ly — notwith-tanding this, I shall speak the 

 truth boldly, and fear no man. The time will 

 come when we shall have just and proper judges 

 of men, as well as of cattle. 



When Mr. Keary wrote his "essay" for the 

 R. A. S., he found his opponent, Mr. Smythies, 

 a straightforward, just man, who wrote the 

 truth, and Mr. Keary found it went home to 

 him. I did not keep Mr. Keary's letters in M. 

 L. E., but publish the following challenges Mr. 

 Smythies gave to Mr. Keary, and his last let- 

 ter in reply to him, which will show about the 

 whole of the discussion. 



EDITORIAL FROM "MARK LANE EXPKESS" 

 (LONDON). 



Day by day we are coming to a more distinct 

 classification as to a more becoming recognition 

 of our several breeds of stock. Without exactly 

 undertaking to assert which is really the best, 

 we now give to almost every variety a fair op- 

 portunity of displaying its merits and attrac- 

 tions. We have for some time been gradually 

 approaching this, but never so directly nor so 

 decisively as during the last Smithfield Show 

 week. The admiring public is to be puzzled 

 no longer, but to go methodically through every 

 class or kind of animal it ever heard of. It 

 is no longer Shorthorn, Hereford, and Devon 

 only; but as equally defined, Sussex, Welsh, 

 Scotch, and any other high-bred cattle that can 

 prove to a local habitation and a name. All 

 this is very good. We not only encourage our 

 breeders and enlighten our visitors, but we even 

 ease the duties and lessen the responsibilities 

 of our judges. Years back, the upright judge 

 went into the yard instructed to -say at once 

 which was the best beast there— to pick him out 

 valiantly from all sorts and sizes, thoroughbred 

 or mongrel, no matter which ! He owned, per- 

 haps, to some little sympathy with the Dur- 

 ham, or to some slight antipathy to the Devon, 

 and he decreed and got abused accordingly. 



Now, however, he can pronounce on a Short- 

 horn simply as a Shorthorn, without any of 

 those invidious comparisons which so often 

 ere this have brought him to grief. To be sure 

 there is the gold medal still, but then a man 

 who takes the first honors of his school will 

 always look with some little philosophy on any 

 little "mistake" his friends may fall into. 



The labours, then, of our judges are consid- 

 erably facilitated, while their decisions are like 

 to be freed from much of that angry discussion 

 which has too often attended the publication 

 of the awards. And yet, strange to say, there 

 never was more difficulty in making out an 

 efficient corps for such duties than there is 

 just at present. Crabbe, who, whatever his mer- 

 its as a poet, always wrote with wondrous truth 

 and fidelity, thus describes the man we are 

 looking out for : 



"He was of those whose skill assigns the prize 

 For creatures fed in pens, and stalls and sties; 

 And who in places where improvers meet 

 To fill the land with fatness had a seat; 

 Who plans encourage, and who journals keep, 

 And talk with lords about a breed of sheep." 



We will not venture to say how many years 

 it is since this was penned ; but this we may 

 say, that the lines are far more applicable now 

 than they possibly could have been when orig- 

 inally composed. Where the poet had one or 



<irn3 





LONGHOHN BULL, REPRODUCED FROM YOUATT'S 

 BOOK ON .CATTLE. 



two such models in his eye, we have them in 

 scores and hundreds. He might perhaps have 

 pointed to a Bakewell or an EUman. We turn 

 at once to the list of the Royal Agricultural 

 Society — some six or seven thousand strong — 

 and "tick off" name after name of men who 

 sit in places where improvers meet, who plan, 

 encourage, journals keep, and talk with lords 



