HISTORY OP HEREFORD CATTLE 



211 



Hall, and was received most kindly. We rode 

 over his farm, viewed the cattle, which con- 

 sisted of Herefords, and discussed the demand 

 for his Essex hogs, which at that time was very 

 great. I found in Mr. Hobbs one of the most 

 substantial men I ever met, and never spent a 

 more pleasant time than while under his" roof. 

 Many of the nobility looked up to him for ad- 

 vice. iSTo man stood higher as a steward or as 

 an agriculturist, and he was a leading man at 

 the principal meetings and exhibitions oi the 

 country. I purchased a pair of his pigs, and 

 had them sent to London to be shipped with my 

 Herefords. 



The testimony of such men is worth preserv- 

 ing, while those who write for the sake of see- 

 ing their names in print copy from others, no 

 better informed than themselves, put on airs un- 

 becoming men of judgment, do a great deal of 

 injury, much more than they have any idea. 

 How manjf writers of the past have been prac- 

 tical men ? Youatt is yet often quoted by edi- 

 tors, novices in breeding, such as J. H. San- 

 ders, Judge T. C. Jones and many others I have 

 named, who have pinned their faith to him, 

 when all practical men who have read Youatt 

 can plainly see that he knew little more about 

 cattle than cattle knew of him, and it was sheer 

 affectation for him even to attempt so impor- 

 tant an undertaking. He was educated as a 

 veterinary surgeon, which profession required a 

 classical education, and upon wdiich acquired 

 education such men are apt to place the founda- 

 tion of their knowledge so that when they write, 

 they study the classical part more fully than the 

 more practical. 



So it was with Youatt. He looked more to 

 his orthography, etymology, syntax and prosody 

 than he did to the good points and character of 

 animals, or the true science in breeding them. 

 He never studied good breeding practically, but 

 gained his information at market ordinaries of 

 those interested, and his friends were princi- 

 pally amongst the Shorthorn breeders. It was 

 mostly hearsay without proper foundation. 

 Any practical man can discover this through 

 the whole of his work, which I have read close- 

 ly, and have frequently quoted critically, which 

 can be plainly seen in my former letters. He 

 decidedly shows that he listened attentively 

 to the dictates of Shorthorn breeders, because he 

 knew they were rich, and by their riches had 

 run themselves into a rapid current of notoriety. 

 Such men have done great injury to the progress 

 of good breeding. There are too many who have 

 followed this example, feeling themselves ex- 

 alted because they have written a book, no mat- 

 ter whether mankind had received anv benefit 



from It, or it had mtiicted a great and palpable 

 injury. 



All L. F. Allen's works are borrowed from 

 such men as Youatt, while the portion ema- 

 nating from his own brain rests upon a very 

 shallow foundation, or smacks strongly toward 

 his own interest. You might easily suppose 

 that L. F. Allen was the founder and self-pre- 

 server of all the breeds in the universe, but it 

 was this consummate vanity that prompted him 

 to borrow the plumage of others in forming 

 the bulk of his books. Shorthorn men them- 

 selves saw the exaggerations of Shorthorns and 

 his desire to depreciate the Herefords. All 

 knew his motives and his strong prejudices, 

 and some of them made allowances for some 

 of his idiosyncrasies. Although L. F. Allen 

 was exceedingly anxious to become a noted 

 breeder of Shorthorns, which was at one time 

 partially supposed, on paper, he never bred 

 or owned a good animal of the Shorthorn breed 

 in his life. He was a man of great notoriety, 

 without the necessary essentials of true merit 

 to back him. I cannot but believe that his 

 book on the different breeds of cattle has done 

 much more harm to the community than he 

 can ever repair. He supposed in his vanity that 

 I was so far inferior to him in position, amongst 

 the cattle men, that there was no paper in this 



A MISSOURI COW' AND HER TRIPLETS. 



country whose editor would allow me to reply 

 to him. I am very anxious to have him replv 

 to my strictures upon him, backed by the other 

 flunkies I have named, so intimately connected 

 with him. I tell them all that the editors and 

 proprietors of the '"Drover's Journal" are hon- 

 est in their purposes, and will publish anything 

 they choose to write. My suggestions to them 

 are, not to change a word, but give them their 

 full force, and that they will find the "Drover s 

 Journal" impartial toward either breeder or 

 breed, and for which they have been rewarded 

 for their honesty and independence in the sue- 



