184 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



short, small and crumpled. I tried to buy her, 

 but he would not set a price, as he valued her 

 "sweet head" very highly. I never learnt what 

 subsequently became of her or her progeny. 



I now hear but little of John R. Page ; his 

 light seems to be "hid under a bushel." I hear 

 nothing of his herd, and his notorious flattering 

 portraits on paper seem to have lost patronage. 

 John was once a shining light ; I should not be 

 surprised to see him swaggering amongst the 

 white-faces with as much pomp as he did at 

 Shorthorn sales, if he can make it prove as agree- 



THOS. CLARK, BEECHBR, ILL. 



(Member Organization Committee American Hereford Cattle 

 Breeders' Association.) 



able to Hereford breeders as he did to those of 

 Shorthorns. John puffed Morris & Becar, who 

 retired in favor of Jonathan Thorn; he retired 

 in favor of Sheldon, who retired in favor of 

 Walcott & Campbell — all Duchess men. Vail 

 retired to S. P. Chapman and became a Devon 

 breeder. Chapman failed when in prime of life 

 — when he considered himself just in his glory, 

 while advertising Halton (purchased by Mr. 

 A^ail ) at $20 per cow, which was more than the 

 brute was worth. I should like to hear the first 

 man say that he ever saw a good one from him. 

 All Page's puffs and portraits of him at the 

 head of the herd ended in smoke. Halton sold 

 at the sale at about the price advertised for a 

 cow to be bred to him. 



Francis Rotch was another Bates puffer and 

 a fancy pet scribe of the "Albany Cultivator and 



Country Gentleman," the organ for the Short- 

 horns, which was solely under these scribes and 

 breeders. If a Hereford breeder advocated their 

 breed he was either "strongly prejudiced against 

 Shorthorns" or was no judge of them or of Here- 

 fords. They knew "on which side their bread 

 was buttered," and they took advantage of it. 

 Rotch's prestige in Shorthorns failed before he 

 died ; his herd became extinct; there is nothing 

 left of his work as a pleasant memorial, and this 

 same "Country Gentleman" has ever since 

 shunned the Herefords, though conscious of 

 how much they had abused them. 



I name some of these gentlemen and their or- 

 gan because they were the princijjal ones who 

 were constantly worrying Hon. Erastus Corn- 

 ing by condemning Herefords and speaking in 

 high praise of the Shorthorns. Thirty to forty 

 influential men of money against one individ- 

 ual, who had but little means to defend himself 

 against such men, glorying in their power. It 

 was that overbearing power that brought them 

 to a sense of their weakness, when put into the 

 balance scale of profit and loss. 



It is difficult to say how much they lost. I 

 do most earnestly wish that good and just man, 

 the late Hon. Erastus Corning, was here now to 

 witness the change and realize the true char- 

 acter of those men in their present state, who 

 did all in their power to influence him in their 

 well-known deceit, none of which can again 

 visit him for the purpose of deceiving him in 

 his calm and unalloyed resting place. He is 

 now receiving his just reward for the good he 

 has done on earth. 



PART III. 



These Shorthorn men were fully aware thev 

 had something to contend with in the Here- 

 fords, and exerted their utmost to keep them in 

 the background. Criticised their white faces and 

 bellies, the long horns of the cows and the larg(; 

 horns of the bulls, their thick hides,not knowing 

 that the two latter were the best signs of con- 

 stitution and good quality, of which the most 

 fashionable Shorthorns were deficient. Bates ob- 

 tained a name for breeding superior cattle from 

 in-and-in families, at the same time produced 

 his best cattle from "outs in the dark," deceiv- 

 ing his followers, thus condemning himself and 

 destroying his reputation for "pure breeding." 

 Although the truth will out, nothing can sup- 

 press it, the Bates mania became so strong that 

 his disciples were not sufficient judges or ob- 

 servers to detect this fraud, or they were de- 

 termined to fully endorse it. 



