226 



HISTOKY OF HEREFOED CATTLE 



I imported from England were all fine milkers, 

 and so are their descendants. The cows of these 

 milking tribes are generally thin whilst giving 

 milk, but fatten very quickly when dry. The 

 steers of the milking tribes are equal and gener- 

 ally superior as grazier's stock to the others. 

 Mine has been superior, which I attributed to 

 having been better nourished by their mothers. 

 Second. Which of the breeds imported in 

 1817, the Longhorns or Shorthorns, have suc- 

 ceeded best? 



There was a close contest, for many years, be- 

 tween the Longhorns and Shorthorns and Here- 

 fords. Each bad 

 their advocates 

 and each pro- 

 duced a stock that 

 was a great im- 

 provement as 

 grazing stock 

 upon the native 

 and "Patton 

 stock" (as the old 

 unimproved Short- 

 horns introduced 

 by Mr. Patton 

 were called). This 

 contest was kept 

 up until about 

 1830, when the 

 advocates of the 

 Shorthorns became most numerous. The Long- 

 horns and Herefords were gradually bred to 

 Shorthorn bulls, until the pure breed of the 

 former are nearly extinct. (^114) 



Third. How do the Longhorns of that im- 

 portation (1817) or their descendants compare 

 with the Patton Longhorns ? 



Mr. Patton was one of the original importers 

 in 1783 of two breeds of cattle. They were then 

 called the milk and beef breed. The milk breed 

 was Shorthorns. The beef breed had longer 

 horns; but / have always supposed they were 

 the unijnproved Herefords. I am not aware 

 that there were ever brought into Kentucky 

 any of the full-bred beef breeds, so that my 

 opinion that they were Herefords is based upon 

 the appiearanee of the half-bloods that I have 

 seen. Mr. Patton brought to Kentucky the full- 

 bred milk breed and half-blood cows of the beef 

 breed, and Mr. Smith brought also a bull which 

 was half beef and half milk breed, called Buz- 

 zard. Mr. Patton's Shorthorns were very fine 

 animals. They were fine-boned, heavy-fieshed 

 and came early to maturity and fattened kindly 

 and were extraordinary milkers. They were 

 much larger than cattle that we had in the 

 State previously. Mr. Patton brought only one 



JOHN P. REYNOLDS, CHICAGO. 



cow of this breed, and she had no female de- 

 scendants. The produce of these fine cattle 

 were very much injured by breeding them to 

 bulls which were descendants of the beef breed, 

 such as Inskeeps, Brindle and Smith's Buzzard. 

 These cattle produced large, coarse, big-jointed 

 stock that came slowly to maturity, difficult to 

 fatten, and when fully grown were of enormous 

 dimensions. This was the state of things in 

 1817 when your importation of Shorthorns and 

 Longhorns was made. I remember well exam- 

 ining the Longhorn bull Piising Sun, soon after 

 Messrs. Cunningham & Co. bought him, and I 

 then thought him the finest animal of the ox 

 kind I had ever seen. His stock was very fine 

 — vastly superior to the coarse stock above de- 

 scribed. I sold a cow (got by Rising Sun) to 

 a butcher who paid me for a thousand pounds, 

 net meat [about 1,7.50 lbs. live weight. T. L. 

 M.], a very unusual size for a cow in those 

 days. 



Fourth. How do the Shorthorns imported 

 in 1817, or their descendants, compare with 

 those that have since been introduced, includ- 

 ing those of the Ohio Importing Co. ? 



The Shorthorns of 1817 were fine-boned, 

 heavy-fleshed animals that came early to ma- 

 turity and fattened much easier than the Patton 

 stock (especially after the latter had been mixed 

 with the beef breed). They fattened mostly on 

 the outside, so that they always showed their 

 fat to the best advantage. Their flesh was rather 

 inclined to hardness, which was a considerable 

 drawback upon their excellence. 



The best of the improved Shorthorns, intro- 

 duced within the last twenty years, have all the 

 good qualities that the stock of 1817 had, and 

 have these additional advantages : Their flesh 

 is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of 

 their fat among the lean so as to marble it. 

 The Iteef is of a better quality and they take on 

 fat much easier. They are as forward at three 

 years old as the stock of 1817 were at four, or 

 as the Patton stock were at six. But 

 the later importations have had greatly the ad- 

 vantage of the stock of 1817 in having the im- 

 provement made by the latter to start with. 

 Some of the finest animals I have ever seen fat- 

 tened were a mixture of the two breeds. I think 

 there was some of the importation of 1817 that 

 did not have that hardness of flesh, but they 

 soon became so mixed in their descendants that 

 it was a general characteristic, (f 115) 



Fifth. If you were now to choose a stock for 

 general grazing purposes, in your State, what 

 breed or breeds would you select from ? 



I should have no hesitation in preferring the 

 improved Shorthorns to every other kind of 



