374 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



coats are a protection in the winter. The but- 

 ter that IS made is a splendid color and taste. 

 There are lots of Hereford dairies in this 

 county. In the year 1881 I sold two bulls to 

 cross Shorthorns, and I know parties who have 

 crossed Herefords with Shorthorns and have 

 come back again to the Herefords.' 



"Mr. White writes me from Wiltshire as fol- 

 lows : T keep a dairy of ninety pure-bred Here- 

 ford cows, which breed has been kept on this 



WU^^^z^^^, 



RUDOI^PH (6660J 1.^478. 

 Bred by P. Turner, Herefordshire. 



farm for the last sixty years, and I have at all 

 times endeavored to obtain the milkiest strain I 

 could, and I think I have now a herd of cows 

 more adapted to dairy purposes than any other 

 Hereford herd in this country. I have made 

 fair trials between the Hereford and Shorthorn 

 as to profit, and I give my decided preference to 

 the former.' 



"The testimony from these two herds is the 

 most valuable that could possibly be obtained 

 as to the dairy capabilities of the breed, as they 

 are the largest, and have been longest estab- 

 lished of any in existence. I have received let- 

 ters similar in tenor to the above from various 

 smaller breeders in different counties, and I 

 have not been able to discover an instance where 

 breeders or dairymen have changed back to 

 other breeds after starting in with Herefords. 

 T had hoped to send with this report some fig- 

 ures giving actual milk and butter products, 

 etc., but I must leave them for a supplementary 

 report, as I have already detained this one over 

 a month, waiting for the promised statistics. 

 But it is not so much as milkers that the United 

 States are interested in the breed, but as beef 

 producers; and that in this capacity they are 

 indeed largely interested will be proved when 

 I say that the extraordinary demand for pedi- 

 gree Herefords from the United States in the 

 last few years has so increased the price of these 



cattle that the Hereford breeders are looked 

 upon with envy by other breeders throughout 

 the kingdom as having 'struck a bonanza.' 

 That Herefords will repay a large expenditure 

 is undeniable. Their tremendous development of 

 flesh, their activity as feeders, their insensibility 

 to changes of climate, their hardiness, their 

 quiet and placid tempers, are just precisely the 

 qualities needed for the improvement of our 

 western, Texas, and Spanish cattle. Their 

 balls, too, have a marvelous faculty of impress- 

 ing their qualities on their get, and there is 

 many a half breed Hereford which is absolutely 

 indistinguishable in appearance and quality 

 from a pure bred one, so completely is the in- 

 fluence of the dam eliminated. Another point. 

 The Hereford is especially strong just where 

 our western cattle are weak, viz., in the de- 

 velopment of the flesh on the back. The back 

 of a well-ripened Hereford steer has been com- 

 pared to a table, and the back of a Texas steer 

 to a wedge, i Volumes could not say more. 



"There were two remarkable sales of Here- 

 fords during the past year; one, the dispersal 

 of Mr. Pitt's (If 2.5.3) herd at Chadnor Court, 

 (112,54) and the other the dispersal of Mr. 

 Turner's herd at The Leen. (^125.5) Mr. Pitt 

 established his herd in 1842, from four cele- 

 brated cows of the day. I present a little state- 

 ment of the amounts received by Mr. Pitt at 

 this sale. 



Number of Animals. Value. Average. 



32 cows with two calves $13,450.00 $420.00 



2.5 calves 4,561.63 198.47 



12 2-year-old heifers 7,818.05 651.50 



3 2-year-old heifers 1,113.67 371.22 



12 yearlings 3,995.87 333.00 



7 bulls 2.800.00 400.00 



"Ninety-one animals averaged about $.37.5 

 each. The average of $051.50 for 12 two-year- 

 old heifers has never before been equalled in 

 England in any breed. 



"Mr. Turner's herd has been established for 

 about eighty years, his grandfather being the 

 founder. Since 1854 Mr. Turner has won with 

 individuals of his herd 111 first prizes, 60 

 second prizes, 11 third, beside 52' special prizes. 

 He received an average of $369 apiece for his 

 animals, his cows and calves averaging a little 

 higher. His chief stock bull. The Grove 3d 

 (5051) 2490 (T1256) brought over 830 gs 

 (.$4,150). 



"These two herds were exceptionally fine and 

 had a wide celebrity. Many of the animals 

 went to the United States, making, with all 

 others forwarded, a total of 1,800 pedigree 

 Herefords sent to the United States from Feb- 

 ruary 1, 1883, to February 1, 1884. This in- 

 cludes one lot of 300 sent to Baltimore in 



