HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



385 



many more. A buyer came to me only a few 

 days ago wantinsj Hereford bulls for his Short- 

 horn cows, his Shorthorn bulls having all died 

 during the late drouth, and I ventured to say 

 that there were few cattle breeders who have 

 not seen and admired the first cross between 

 the pure Hereford bull and Shorthorn cow. As 

 Australia is the finest cattle country in the 

 world, particularly the Queensland portion of 

 it, and as the day must come, sooner or later, 

 when they will be worth double what they now 

 sell at, we shall do well to consider the merits 

 of all the different breeds, that the more suit- 

 able breeds may be kept on the different classes 

 of country. In a drouth it is a fact — and a 

 well Imown fact, too — that Shortho'rns will die 

 long before Herefords and Devons, or, I be- 

 lieve, any other breed. New Zealand, I should 

 say, is better adapted for the Shorthorn, where 

 an acre of land will provide him with sufScient 

 grass and water, and where he will not have 

 to travel a great distance to market; but in 

 Queensland, on very many runs, the Herefords 

 or Devons should be kept." 



HEREFORD CATTLE IN AUSTRALIA. 



Referring to the assertion of a writer, that 

 Hereford cattle grew wild when turned on 

 ranges in New Zealand, Mr. A. J. McConnel, 

 of Queensland, in a contribution to the "Live 

 Stock Journal," London, says : "With regard 

 to the Hereford cattle of New Zealand, I wish 

 to say that all I have seen were extremely quiet 

 and docile, and could not, by any stretch of im- 

 agination, be said to have any inclination to 

 wildness or even unsteadiness, and I have heard 

 enough of their ways to convince me that the 

 ferine Hereford cattle, of which Proteus writes, 

 must be the result of some terrible neglect. 

 With respect to the Hereford cattle of Australia 

 I must ask you to receive a novel writer's state- 

 ment with great reserve. It is really not worth 

 alluding to, for the paragraph in which the 

 author writes of the unsteadiness of the Here- 

 ford cattle was merely a repetition of the usual 

 talk on cattle stations in years past, when this 

 particular trait of wildness was insisted upon 

 by men who had never seen a well-bred Here- 

 ford herd. I have the author's authoritv to 

 say that his only experience, in a large way, of 

 Hereford cattle was with a neglected herd 

 where some white-faced bulls had been used. 

 These by no means could be called pure, and 

 that after a short period of careful manage- 

 ment this particular herd was quieter than the 

 herds on any neighboring properties. I should 

 like to add a few words about my own experi- 



ence. On the property with which I am con- 

 nected Hereford cattle have been bred since 

 1865 in mountainous and broken country, and 

 care was taken at the start to get the best pure- 

 bred bulls obtainable in New South Wales, 

 where Herefords had been bred from imported 

 stock since 1825. Before we commenced with 

 Herefords we had a very quiet and highly bred 

 Shorthorn herdr We made the change because 

 we were of the opinion that the Herefords were 

 better grazing cattle and more profitable alto- 

 gether, and the event has proved that we were 

 right. But the point I wish to make clear is, 

 that the very quiet and tractable herd of 7,000 

 Shorthorn cattle has been succeeded by a herd 

 more tractable still of Hereford cattle. The 

 same care and the same treatment was shown 

 to the cattle in both instances. There can be 

 no doubt that a Hereford is more agile m his 

 movements than any breed except the Devon. 

 That I concede readily, and I hold it to be one 

 of his excellencies, for it enables a grazing 

 Hereford in Australia to range about for food 

 in times of scarcity, and do well, when a softer 

 breed gives up the struggle for existence. I 

 suspect the truth to be that when we hear of 

 an inclination to wildness on the part of any 

 cattle of any breed, if we knew the circum- 

 stances, they would show that neglect of owners 

 and a want of knowledge in working numbers of 

 cattle together on the runs is at the bottom of 



FISHERMAN (5913) 76239. 

 Bred by T. Rogers, Herefordshire. 



this inclination to wildness. I afhrm that the 

 Hereford is not more prone to ferine habits in 

 Australia than any other breed. I have seen 

 neglected Shorthorn cattle as wild as it is pos- 

 sible for cattle to be — in fact, they were use- 

 less, for they could not be got when wanted." 



A CHALLENGE. 



"To the Editor of the 'Queenslander' : 



"Much has been written and published in your 

 columns during the pa«t two years of' the 



