HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



483 



to us the best lot of calves to be found in this 

 section. 



Some parties who have been using Shorthorn 

 bulls, are negotiating vi^ith us for grade Here- 

 ford bull calves. Hoping you are enjoying good 

 health and the "Highland herd" is flourishing, 

 we remain, yours truly, Kennedy Bros., 



Fort Sully, D. T. 



Oak Creek Ranch, D. T., Sept. 8, 1882. 



GEADE HEREFORD SIRES IN MISSOURI. 



Concord, Mo., Jan. 9, 1883. 

 T. L. Miller, Beecher, HI. : 



I wish you would be kind enough to tell me 

 what is the trouble, if any, in the breeding of 

 my bull, or rather, I should say, the marking of 

 my grade Hereford calves. I have been told 

 that he (the bull) puts too much red in their 

 faces. Last spring, I had dropped twenty-three 

 grade Hereford calves, sired by Red Cloud 

 2086 (5528), and out of high-grade Shorthorn 

 cows. They (the cows) are all red, some few 

 with white spots, and deep red roans. The 

 calves are without exception deep reds, with 

 white bellies, white feet, white ends on their 

 tails, and white faces back to their ears, with 

 a broad red spot over the nose and some of them 

 extending up to the eyes, covering one-third of 

 the face. They have short legs, broad hips, 

 straight lines top and bottom, well sprung ribs 

 and deep briskets. In short, everyone was a 

 good one, without a runt or dwarf, and to-day 

 are fat, living on hay, staying out of doors on 

 the prairie. Is the bull at fault? Are the 

 spots all right and as they should be? I have 

 bred to him for this year fifty choice grade 

 cows, and will in a few days have more calves. 

 Now, if the spotted faces are all right, the calves 

 are. 



I am a Hereford man from honest convictions 

 and because I believe the Herefords to be the 

 cattle. A hedge fence alone separates my herd 

 from a herd of Shorthorns that for pure breed- 

 ing and fancy strains of blood stands pre-emi- 

 nent in Central Missouri, but as they emerge 

 from their warm barn and well-filled boxes, 

 showing the kindly attention of an intelligent 

 and good master, and in themselves most splen- 

 did specimens of a splendid breed, tbey excite 

 not the slightest sense of shame, for the jolly 

 little whitefaces, that go scampering away over 

 the frozen snow to the music of the jingling 

 icicles that hang to their soft and mellow hides, 

 and who wouldn't know an ear of com if they'd 

 meet it in the road. Please answer me the 

 question of their faces, and oblige. 



Yours truly, Cephalus Black. 



Note. — The man who buys grade Hereford 

 bulls should first convince himself that they 

 are by thoroughbred Hereford bulls, and then 

 that the form of the calf is good; and then, if 

 the calf has a brockled face, it will not hurt 

 him. 



MORE NEW TORE EXPERIENCE. 



Amos Bissell & Son, of Milford, N. Y., 

 wrote in October, 1883, as follows: 



On April 13th last, we placed a pair of grade 

 Hereford steers in a stall together, and told the 

 man who grooms our stallions to see what he 

 could make of them. That day they weighed 

 2,100 pounds and were so good that two weeks 

 later the butchers offered us $143 for them to 

 kill. Five months and eleven days later we 

 drove them to the village (one mile) and they 

 pulled the scale at 3,180 pounds, but had on a 

 pine yoke which we think will weigh 35 pounds, 

 iiut is safe at 40 pounds. Thiis the cattle gained 

 1,050 pounds during that time, or an average 

 of 6.44 pounds per day for the pair. Both 

 weighings were honest in every particular and 

 on the same scales. Age, three years last spring. 

 Their daily feed consisted of small potatoes, 

 hay, nine quarts wheat middlings, and two 

 quarts oil meal. August and September, hay, 

 Bassano beets, four quarts of oil meal and 

 twelve quarts of middlings. They are now eat- 

 ing potatoes and some quantity of grain. We 

 hope to grow them a ton during the experiment 

 year. 



These steers have no straight breeding in 

 them, but are doubtless three-quarters Here- 

 ford, as we have much of that blood mixed 

 through our dairies. 



By the way, Mr. Geo. Clarke, our neighbor, 

 had at one time over 300 pure-bred breeding 

 cows of his own importing and breeding — many 

 years before you gentlemen at the West adopted 

 the breed. 



MR. FUNEHOUSEK A MISSOURI CONVERT. 



Mr. Jas. A. Funkhouser, of Plattsburgh, Mo., 

 writes as follows (1884) : 



In regard to my calves by Dauphin, I will 

 say I have eighteen, ten bulls and eight heifers. 

 The ten bull calves average weight is 711 

 pounds and their average age is 242 days, or 

 eight months. The eight heifers' average weight 

 is 601 pounds, and their average age is 239 

 days. They certainly are a choice lot, in fact, 

 the best lot of calves of any breed I ever saw. 

 My Shorthorn friends, even, acknowledge they 

 are an extra lot of calves, but claim they would 

 be good from such cows by any bull. It occurs 



