366 



HISTORY OF HEREFOED CATTLE 



Date. Oxen Sold. Value. 



Dec. 16. 1799, 2 oxen to Mr. Chapman : £200=51000 



Dec. 4, 1800, 1 ox to Mr. Chapman 147= 735 



Dec. 13. 1800, 1 ox to Mr. Harrington 100= 500 



Nov. 26, 1801. 6 oxen to Messrs. Gibiett & Co 630= 3150 



.Nov. 26, 1802, 1 ox to Messrs. Gibiett & Co 100= 500 



Nov. 31, 1802, 1 ox to Mr. Chapman 126= 630 



Dec. 4. 1802, 2 oxen to Mr. Horwood 200= 1000 



Dec. 4, 1802. 1 ox to Mr. Chapman 100= 50O 



Dec. 19, 1803, 1 ox to Mr. Reynolds 105= 525 



Dec. 19, 1803, 1 ox to Mr. Gibiett 10,5= 525 



Dec. 5, 1804, 1 ox to Mr. Gibiett 105= 525 



Dec. 4, 1805. 1 ox to Mr. Gibiett 100= 500 



Nov. 26, 1811, 1 ox to Mr. Chandler 105= 525 



"The whole 20 sold for £2,123 ($10,615) or 

 an average of £100 6s ($501.50) each. I have 

 also seen at Mr. Ledbrook's, who succeeded Mr. 

 Grace at Putlowe's a few years since, when the 



VENUS (V. 12, D. 152) 10133. 

 Bred by T. J. Carwardine. 



price of meat was lower than in the beginning 

 of the century, 50 oxen tied up for Christmas 

 at the end of November, for which he had bid 

 £2,500 ($12,500) ; the price was rather under 

 5s ($1.25) per stone (or about 9 cents per 

 pound live weight), but this would have made 

 them average over 200 stone (2,800 pounds 

 each, alive) per head. The class of animal I 

 have been describing is now no more. They 

 were five-year-old worked beasts, and even older 

 which had been for two or three years harnessed 

 in the yoke, and had therefore attained great 

 size. Working in the plow is now comparatively 

 rare, and early maturity is the aim of all the 

 best farmers in England, and the Hereford 

 breeders are not likely to be left behind. It is 

 a rare thing now-a-days to purchase a Hereford 

 steer at a fair over three years old. When I 

 began farming, thirty years ago, I bought a lot 

 of beautiful three-year-old Hereford steers in 

 October at £13 10s ($67) each, in poor con- 

 dition. I gave them the run of the straw yard, 

 and three pounds of oil cake per dav, and 

 turned them out to grass in May, and sold them 

 in August and September at from £23 to £24 

 ($115 to $120) each, giving me some excellent 

 manure and a good profit on the animals. The 

 price of this class of beast rapidly rose, and now 



they can scarcely be bought under £21 to £22 

 ($105 to $110) each, and as they only make 

 about £26 to £27 ($130 to $135) each when otf 

 the grass they do not pay enough. I once went 

 to a Hereford fair at Easter and bought 10 of 

 the finest old worked beasts I ever saw at £29 

 10s ($147) each. They were large fine framed 

 animals, and when they arrived at Aylesbury, 

 Baron Mayer de Rothschild saw them and beg- 

 ged I would let him have them, and I consented 

 on condition that he gave me a round of one of 

 them for my Christmas dinner the same year. 

 He took them to Montmore, and some made £46 

 to £47 ($230 to $235) each at Christmas and 

 others went off the grass in October at £38 to 

 £40 ($190 to $200) each, but such aged beasts 

 are not found now. Amongst the most noted 

 graziers of these cattle was the late Mr. Senior, 

 of Broughton pastures, near Aylesbury. This 

 gentleman was a very successful exhibitor of 

 Herefords after Mr. Westcar's death, but of late 

 years he grazed Sussex beasts, as he could not 

 get the worked animals from Herefordshire. 

 Mr. Duckham and other writers on Hereford- 

 shire cattle say that the county is not by any 

 means a good grazing district, but eminently 

 adapted for breeding and rearing cattle, and 

 that no class of animal thrives so well, when 

 changed onto the fine pastures of Buckingham- 

 shire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire. 



"As Mr. Westcar's name and his residence at 

 Creslow has been so often quoted by all writers 

 upon the Herefords, I must be pardoned for 

 giving a slight sketch of this famous grazing 

 district. 'The great ground,' as it is called at 

 Creslow, is, as before stated, about 330 acres 

 and is very undulating, and hounded on two 

 sides by a brook, a tributary of the Thames, and 

 on the other two sides by a large double ox 

 fence, with large elm trees affording shade to 

 the numerous head of cattle grazing there. I 

 have seen nearly 250 head of horned stock and 

 500 sheep and lambs, with 20 mares and foals, 

 grazing in this one field, and all getting fat. 

 It is jocosely said that the cattle are turned into 

 the field in Mav and by the time they have 

 walked around the inclosure they come out fit 

 for the butcher. The old mansion has formerly 

 been a monastery, and the estate belongs to the 

 Lord de Clifford, in whose family it has been 

 for some centuries, and it is stated that Rosa- 

 mond de Clifford, Tair Rosamond,' was born 

 there. Nothing can exceed the rich pastoral 

 beauty of this district. From the upper ground 

 the eye wanders over the far-famed vale of 

 Avlesbury, the old town, the 'Aegelsbireg' of 

 the Saxone, standing in the midst of the rich 

 pastures of Whitechurch; Quarrenden with its 



