278 



HISTOKY OF HEEEFOKD CATTLE 



- C. W. COOK. 

 Odebolt, Iowa. 



Hereford herd, or can he name a Shorthorn 

 herd in Kentucky that does not raise its own 

 calves with its own mothers? We think not, 

 never having heard of such a herd in this state. 

 I was well acquainted also with the Shorthorn 

 herds of Jackson County, Mo., until two sea- 

 sons past, and there, as here, the cows raise 

 their own calves. I also visited a very promi- 

 nent herd in Mr. Miller's own state (Illinois), 



this past season, 

 and found the Win- 

 slow Bros.' herd 

 not only raising 

 their own calves, 

 but also giving 

 much milk in ex- 

 cess, which was be- 

 ing made up into 

 quantities of butter 

 and cheese for mar- 

 ket. I have also 

 just returned from 

 a visit to several 

 of the prominent 

 Shorthorn herds in 

 Ohio, viz., those of 

 Hills, Jones, An- 

 drews, and others, 

 and found the cows raising their calves and 

 no assistants. Therefore, I repeat, without 

 fear of successful contradiction, that Mr. 

 Miller knows nothing of the prominent 

 Shorthorn herds of the United States, when 

 he says they don't give sufficient milk to 

 raise their own calves, and his assertion is 

 father to his own wish, that such should be the 

 case. Further, will Mr. Miller deny that the 

 prominent dairies of England are composed of 

 high-grade and pure-bred Shorthorn cows? 

 If he does, the London "Agricultural Gazette" 

 and "Journal" do not so report, and they are the 

 standard stock papers of that country, so I am 

 informed. I have understood this to be true 

 also of the large dairies of New York. 



Again, when he says, if the claim was good 

 for anything, it would not add anything to the 

 value of the breed to go to the plains of Texas, 

 he is in great error, and his assertion proves 

 him anything but a practical cattleman, for on 

 the plains and in Texas it is doubly necessary 

 that -an al>undant flow of milk be kept up. 

 There the calves depending entirely upon their 

 mother's milk for a steady growth, if they are 

 deprived of it, will be stunted, and all practical 

 cattlemen know the result of cattle being 

 stunted in the first eight months of their ex- 

 istence. They never outgrow it, are that much 

 longer in preparation for market and worth 

 that much less when they go to market. 



So far as his assertions are concerned about 

 "the control of the agricultural societies and 

 the use of the press," if they mean anything, 

 they mean that the agricultural societies and 

 press of both this country and England, and, 

 m short, everywhere (the objectionable features 

 and uses to him being the same everywhere), 

 are engaged in dishonorable practices to keep 

 the Hereford down and the Shorthorn up. 

 There is an old saying that right will finally 

 assert itself, yet from the time when interest 

 was first felt in cattle kind, down to this date 

 the Shorthorn has always, in the estimation of 

 the very great majority of beef producers and 

 butchers, been considered the superior of the 

 Herefords; and it is a very queer state of affairs 

 if, for all these long years, both in England 

 and America, wrong ideas have been prevail- 

 ing, that self-interest should not have so ad- 

 justed itself in this respect as to be in accord 

 with the opinions of Mr. Miller. 



Again, what authority has Mr. Miller for 

 saying that the Hereford will graze and feed 

 at less cost than the Shorthorn, and when fed 

 be worth more money? 



If this be true, why has not the English 

 farmer more generally adopted the Hereford 

 than the Shorthorn? The Hereford first ar- 

 rived in America about the year 1816 or 1817 (a 

 very few years behind the Shorthorn), and why 

 have not the farmers in the older states where 

 the Hereford was first taken adopted him instead 

 of the Shorthorn ? Certainly, Mr. Miller will not 

 allege that the agricultural press a-nd societies 

 have kept the intelligent Yankee farmer, as well 

 as the British farmer, in the dark all these long 

 years. Could it be possible that our prejudices, 

 fed from these sources, have been cheating our 

 pockets for near a century in America, and 

 from the time the memory of man runneth not, 

 in Queen Victoria's realms also? From the 

 best light I can get the Hereford is very near, 

 if not quite as old a tribe of distinct bred cat- 

 tle as the Shorthorn in England — there they 

 have been bred, grown and marketed side by 

 side for over a century, both originally confined 

 to small districts, but now the Shorthorn habi- 

 tation is co-extensive with British agriculture 

 and the Herefords more restricted than ever, 

 growing less yearly on account of the steady 

 encroachments of the former on his native ter- 

 ritory. The English farmer is given the credit, 

 I believe, of being the best farmer in the world, 

 his yearly^ rental often exceeding in price the 

 cost for fee simple of our improved western 

 farms. Why is it, if Mr. Miller's assertion be 

 true, about the Hereford feeding and grazing 

 for less than the Shorthorn, and when fed 

 worth more money, that the English farmer 



