448 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



C. N. COSGROVE. 

 Le Sueur, Minn. 



THE ENGLISJI SHOWS FOR 1885. 



The "Mark Lane Express" said of the Bath 

 and West of England Show at Brighton : 



"There was one feature in connection with 

 the show at Brighton which did not appear on 

 the surface, but when culminated proved to be 

 of a very important and striking character. 

 This was the large and good class for groups 

 of animals, bull and two of his get, all pure 

 breeds competing. As very many of the ani- 

 mals which formed the several family groups 



were entered in the 

 ordinary breed sec- 

 tions, no idea of the 

 actual scope of this 

 class could be formed 

 until the several 

 groups had been made 

 up from the rank 

 and file of the cattle 

 and marshaled in the 

 ring ; then it formed 

 the finest sight of 

 the kind which any 

 show yard in the 

 country has ever af- 

 forded. Those who 

 witnessed the judging 

 of this remarkable 

 competition in the great horse ring will not be 

 likely soon to forget the sight of the twenty- 

 one different lots, comprising groups of H.ere- 

 fords, Devons, Sussex, Shorthorns, and even 

 of the Highland breed. But of this more in 

 its place. It is to be hoped that the Royal and 

 other leading societies will do more to encour- 

 age similar competitions, as they are of great 

 interest, and likely to prove practically useful. 

 The Royal does not pit breed against breed in 

 its class for groups, but the Essex society has 

 been doing good work in this way. A prize or 

 prizes, worth winning, and open to all comers 

 — of pure blood — would be sure to make breed- 

 ers try their best not only for themselves but 

 also for the prestige of the particular breed in 

 which they are interested. This particular 

 competition will be something by which to re- 

 member the Brighton meeting, for it was really 

 a show in itself. 



"Herefords were in about the usual numbers, 

 all very select, and all exceedingly well shown. 

 In the small classes for older bulls, Mr. H. R. 

 Hall, of Holme Lacv, won with one of Lord 

 Wilton's get, Hotspur (772fi), bred by the 

 late T. J. Carwardine; Mr. John Price's Hot- 

 spur (7088) (^ 329), by Regulus (4076), came 

 in second, so that the position of these two ani- 



mals was the same as at the Essex show. Lord 

 Coventry's Goodboy (7668) was entered in this 

 class, but as he had won the first prize in it last 

 year he was not eligible to compete. Mr. H. 

 W. Taylor's Maidstone (8875), winner of the 

 champion prize at Dublin this year, had really 

 no competition at Brighton, as he did not com- 

 pete with the two Hotspurs as at Waltham 

 Abbey. In the younger class Mr. J. Price's 

 Pembridge, by Hotspur (7028), was first, as at 

 Waltham Abbey. The class for yearling heifers 

 was commended throughout by the judges, as it 

 deserved to be. Hereford breeders will be not 

 a little indebted to the persistency with which 

 the Earl of Coventry exhibits his stock; the 

 cattle are good, he is always ready to send them 

 far and near, and the successes he has met with 

 are no more than he deserves. 



"The competition in the class for bulls of 

 any pure breed with 'two of their offspring, to 

 which reference has already been made, really 

 demands more space than we can devote to it. 

 The scope of a competition of this sort is really 

 greater than appears at first sight, because the 

 whole of the cattle sections can be drawn upon. 

 As we have said before, the object of it is pri- 

 marily to show the character of the bull's stock, 

 and also to create a wholesome rivalry between 

 the several breeds. At the recent Essex show 

 there was a precisely similar class, and two of 

 the groups competed again at Brighton, with a 

 different result, as will be presently seen. The 

 competition, which was under the head of 'any 

 breed,' comprised 20 entries of family groups, 

 namely, five families of Jerseys (T|330), four 

 of Herefords, four of Sussex, two Devons, two 

 Shorthorns, two Guernseys, and one Highland 

 Scotch (||331). We are not in a position to 

 say positively that all these groups were m 

 their places before the judges, because of the 

 difficulty of making a complete examination 

 whilst they were m the ring, and many of them 

 had elsewhere no locus standi as a group. It 

 will suffice to say, however, that they not only 

 'filled the eye,' i)ut they filled the great horse 

 ring— the only decent ring there was on the 

 ground. As an educational institution it far 

 and away exceeded anything else at Brighton, 

 and we take it that it was the best competition 

 of its kind which has ever been before the Brit- 

 ish public. The Hereford groups were from 

 the herds of Mr. John Price, Mr. S. Robinson, 

 Lord Coventrv, and Mr. T. Duckham, M. P. 

 Mr. Price's group won the chief prizes, which 

 consisted of a first prize in the class, value 30 

 pounds sterling ($150), and a silver cup offered 

 by the Marquis of Bristol ; they were the four- 

 year-old bull Hotspur (7028), the two-vear-old 



