260 



HISTOEY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



Xow, no animals in the show had received 

 more careful and intelligent feeding than the 

 three yearling steers bred by Brown Bros., and 

 fed by John B. Sherman. The steers had made 

 good gains, but they failed to put on that 

 heavy, ripe flesh that the Herefords had and 

 there was no use accounting for the better 



PHILIP TURNER, 

 Of "The Leen," Herefordshire. 



quality of the Herefords in any other way than 

 that they made better use of their feed, put on 

 flesh of a better quality, and in the better parts 

 than do the Shorthorns. And when the two 

 breeds come together, and have fair judging, the 

 Shorthorn must go to the wall, while the credit 

 must go to the breed and not to the feeder. We 

 do not mean to sav that good care and good 

 feeding does not count. It does count. We have 

 had experienced and careful herdsmen, our cat- 

 tle have been well handled. But is this not 

 true of the Shorthorns also? 



Mr. Culbertson won, we think, whenever he 

 had an opportunity to show against the Short- 

 horns, and Mr. Burleigh, of Iowa, took the 

 champion prize in Nebraska this same year for 

 the best beast in the show, and in this Fat 

 Stock Show, the Hereford honors were divided 

 among the three Hereford exhibitors, Culbert- 

 son, Burleigh and Miller. 



Failing to make an impression on the "com- 

 mon farmer" claim, the Shorthorn scribes 

 broke out in another place. 



To the Editor of the "Journal" : I noticed in 



your last number an illustration of Mr. T. L. 

 Miller's steer "Conqueror," a very grand bullock 

 indeed; but you denominate him a grade Here- 

 ford, as if produced by crossing a Flereford 

 bull upon the common scrub cow of the coun- 

 try — the same as that class of cattle produced 

 which we call grade Shorthorns, by breeding 

 our thoroughbred Shorthorn .sires to the com- 

 mon scrub cows of the country. Is not the 

 term grade Hereford a misnomer? And should 

 he not be properly called a cross-bred, as I 

 understand either his dam or grandam was a 

 Shorthorn cow? This being true, why not call 

 him a cross-bred Shorthorn-Hereford, as the 

 term "grade Hereford" misleads; the great 

 bulk of cattlemen everywhere understanding 

 the term "grade" to imply the union of thor- 

 oughbred and scrub stocks, and not the union 

 of two thoroughbred stocks, even of different 

 tribes. 



The steer himself, except in color, bore many 

 strong Shorthorn characteristics, especially in 

 flank and quarter — a comparison of these 

 points with the pure bred Herefords on exhibi- 

 tion readily discovers these facts. 



Again, his rapid gain per day over his pure- 

 bred Hereford cousins, even the prize winners, 

 as set forth in your very instructive tables in 

 the last number of the "Journal," lends addi- 

 tional illustration and force to the fact, that 

 from somewhere besides his Hereford blood he 

 is indebted for his capacity to lay on flesh 

 rapidly, and thus come up to the point of early 

 maturity. 



I for one, am perfectly willing that ilr. Mil- 

 ler should have all the glory possible — and he 

 deserves a great deal for the skillful feeding 

 of his stock exhibited — but I do seriously 

 object to his borrowing any of our Shorthorn 

 blood to build up his Herefords with, and then 

 parading it through the press of the country 

 as an entirely Hereford variety. "Render unto 

 Cffisar the things that are Cesar's." — T. C. 

 Anderson. 



We find the above in the "National Live 

 Stock Journal" for January, 1.S81. We met the 

 same thing m the Kansas City "Indicator" and 

 "Farmers' Magazine," of Louisville, Ky. ' This 

 statement was made by prominent Shorthorn 

 breeders at the Fat Stock Show of 1880. The 

 leading exhibitor at that show stated to quite a 

 crowd that had gathered round him, that Mr. 

 Miller had selected Shorthorn cows from which 

 to breed these bullocks. This same exhibitor 

 said that the cow "Maid of Orleans" had Short- 

 horn blood, and when asked on what authority 

 he made this statement, his reply was that 

 "somebody had said so." 



A letter from the herdsman of Messrs. Lee 



