396 



HISTORY OF HEEEFOED CATTLE 



up at Bringewood, on the Downton Castle es- 

 tate, which belonged to the late Mr. T. A. 

 Knight, and was acknowledged to be one of the 

 best judges of that breed in those times. This 

 gentleman always kept fifteen picked Hereford 

 cows for the use of the Castle — for milk sup- 

 ply — and of their calves four of the best heifers 

 were annually selected to keep up the herd, and 

 the remaining calves, whether male or female, 

 were sold to such of the tenants on the estate 

 as desired to have them at the uniform rate of 



HESIOD (6481) 11675. 



Bred by P. Turner, Herefordshire, founder of the 



Hesiod line. 



$10 each, which was the butcher's price for 

 calves. 



"Mr. Price's father was a dairyman and his 

 farm was close beside the Castle, so that his 

 sons, who had taken a great liking for the 

 Hereford breed, knew pretty well to a day when 

 there would be a calf for sale, and being always 

 among the people who had to do with the breed- 

 ing of the animals, they had already gotten a 

 pretty fair notion of what constituted a per- 

 fect Hereford. They knew the pedigree of 

 each of the fifteen cows, and could give a good 

 idea of what might be expected from each cow. 

 - When the calves were a fortnight old, Mr. 

 Knight decided whether they were to be kept 

 for his own herd or whether they were to be sold 

 and the Price boys generally came in ahead. It 

 was not very long ere they got together a large 

 herd of pure-bred Herefords of the 'Knight' 

 strain, and they found the business so profitable 

 that they gave up the dairy business and de- 

 voted themselves to breeding pure Herefords, to 

 which they have continued to give their almost 

 undivided attention ever since, both at home 

 and here, the Knight strain being the founda- 

 tion of the herds in both places, and the purity 

 of the strain is being maintained with scrup- 

 ulous care by the family, notwithstanding the 



fact that many thousands of miles of sea sep- 

 arate the one herd from the other. 



"There is no indecision when I have to de- 

 scribe Mr. Charles Price's character. He is 

 most decidedly gone upon Herefords. His sit- 

 ting room is decorated with numerous portraits 

 of Hereford cattle, and his library is filled with 

 books and periodicals relative to Herefords. He 

 is filled up with Hereford lore, which leaks out 

 at every opportunity. Among the portraits of 

 cattle is one of a bull named 'Cotmore,' which 

 was the property of Mr. Jeffries, of The Grove, 

 Herefordshire, and won the premium at Oxford 

 in 1839. This animal, Mr. Price informed me, 

 was the grandest Hereford bull ever calved, 

 and if the portrait is a faithful representation 

 it seems to fully bear out the encomiums passed 

 upon it. The next portrait is that of Emperor, 

 the winner of the Eoyal (England) Agricul- 

 tural Society's Show at Shrewsbury in 1874, 

 and bred by Mr. Thomas Sheriff, of Coxall. 

 Next to this comes the portrait of 'Conqueror,' 

 attached to which is a short interesting history. 

 'Conqueror' was bred in the same herd as the 

 celebrated 'Cotmore' above mentioned. He was 

 purchased by Mr. Price when he was farming in 

 Herefordshire, and after he had used him for 

 three years he took the bull to market, where 

 he was offered $160 for him by a butcher, but 

 he wanted ten dollars more, and had to take 

 him home again. He let him for seventeen 

 cows, at $.5 each, and then took him to Leo- 

 minster, in Herefordshire, where he let him 

 from October till Christmas for $100, and the 

 next fall let him from Christmas until Mav 

 for $100. 



"The next year the same person hired him 

 for $250 and when that term was expired Mr. 

 Price sold him for $2.50. Another portrait con- 

 nected with the history of Herefords m South 

 Australia is that of Bringewood 2981 E. H. B., 

 which was bred by Mr. J. Price, of Bringewood, 

 and was purchased from him by Mr. Charles 

 Price, of Hindmarsh Island, brought out here, 

 used by him for four years and then sold by 

 auction in Adelaide, to Mr. J. H. Angas, for 

 117 guineas ($585), being then the first and 

 only pure-bred Hereford bull imported into the 

 colony. There are several other portraits hang- 

 ing around and one group of Herefords and 

 grade Herefords which the "Breeders' Jour- 

 nal" (America) has thought worthy of illus- 

 trating in colors. They are very nice beasts, 

 especially the three pure-breds, but there are 

 better on Hindmarsh Island. Gratitude, or 

 love for a perfect specimen of his class, induced 

 Mr. Price to have, a portrait of a bull, which 

 he owned quite a short time ago, named 'Mon- 



