524 



HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



while the Herefords were busy grazing or rust- 

 ling around, endeavoring to obey the first and 

 most important commands of scripture — in ref- 

 erence to multiplying and replenishing the 

 earth. Both breeds were allowed to remain on 

 the open range the entire winter without any 

 artificial food or shelter of any kind, and were 

 compelled to rustle for a living or die. The 

 winter proved to be one of unusual severity, 

 and before spring came almost fifty per cent of 

 my beloved Shorthorns had died, and the re- 

 mainder were but reeling skeletons. With the 

 Herefords the test was perfectly satisfactory, 

 and every one of the twenty-five showed up in 

 good shape, a number of them being fit for the 

 butcher's block by the 10th of May. This and 

 previous tests satisfied me that Mr. Miller's ex- 

 travagant claims for the white-faces were noth- 

 ing short of facts when applied to them as range 

 cattle; and I have been a friend to them ever 

 since. 



"Notwithstanding the foregoing I am still a 

 friend of the Shorthorns, and think them a 

 grand and useful race of cattle in their proper 

 place ; but experience compels me to differ witli 

 my friend Rust, and to say most emphatically 

 that their place is not on the plains. The Hero- 

 ford bu]l is king of the range, and Mr. Eust 

 will live to hear him bellow triumphantly over 

 every grazing region from the snow-capped 

 peaks of Mexico on the south to the British 

 possessions on the north. 



"(Signed) W. E. Campbell (]{ 369)." 



Few men have had the long and varied expe- 

 rience of Mr. Campbell, and at this writing 

 (1898) he is still ranching and breeding Here- 

 fords in the vicinity of his early range experi- 

 ence. It is a pleasure to us, giving the utmost 

 satisfaction, to recall the countless friends of 

 the Hereford, who have become their staunch 

 advocates after ample experience with other 

 breeds, that cannot be marred by even a very 

 few contrary incidents. We have yet to learn 

 of a single Hereford man who has abandoned 

 his breed for another. 



We commend this correspondence of Mr. 

 Campbell's, selected for repjublication here from 

 countless articles of less merit, because he was 

 and is a master of the range business and he 

 deals directly with facts. We ever had a con- 

 tempt for flowery or caustic rhetoric such as 

 is here used by Mr. Rust and has been used by 

 Shorthorn advocates constantly and by some 

 ephemeral champions of the Herefords. 



This correspondence came out in the "Breed- 

 ers' Gazette" and was republished in the 

 "Breeders' Journal" in 1884 : 



To the "Gazette" : 



Theories invented by professional "quill 

 drivers" look very well on paper; but as I am 

 not skilled in this profession I am compelled 

 to rely wholly upon facts and actual experience, 

 to judge of the superiority of any breed as 

 range cattle, and therefore will not attempt to 

 theorize upon Mr. G. W. Rust's theories in your 

 issue of October 2, but will cheerfully give 

 further details as per his request, though I fear 

 his controversies with Mr. T. L. Miller have so 

 embittered him against the Herefords that it is 

 impossible for him to look upon them or their 

 friends with any degree of fairness. So far as 

 I could learn, the twenty-five Herefords and the 

 twenty-six Shorthorns referred to in my former 

 article were fed and handled in substantially 

 the same manner up to the time of their pur- 

 chase, and were allowed to run in open pasture 

 for sixty or seventy days prior to their ship- 

 ment, after which they were turned in with 

 my range cattle as heretofore stated. Now it 

 may be that the twenty-five Herefords rustled 

 round, and selected all the choicest morsels of 

 grass and therewith put on a thick armor of 

 fallow which withstood the fiercest storms of 

 winter, while the unsuspecting Shorthorns were 

 quietly snoozing. 



But be this as it may, twelve of the Short- 

 horns died and the remaining fourteen were as 

 poor as crows, and had not shed their old coat 

 when the spring round-ups came. 



On the other hand, every one of the twenty- 

 five Herefords lived and were in good flesh, and 

 as sleek as moles at the roundup. If one breed 

 is as hardy as the other, as Mr. Rust claims, 

 why was the mortality so great among the Short- 

 horns when there was none at all among the 

 Herefords, on the same range and under pre- 

 cisely the same circumstances ? 



I am willing to admit my experience is some- 

 what limited, as I have only handled cattle on 

 the plains for sixteen short years, and that tests 

 made by such an amateur as mvself are very 

 tame affairs, when compared with the theories 

 of one who has had long experience in cattle 

 matters in the way of quill-driving. (^ 370.) 



In conclusion I will say, for five or six years 

 past I have been steadily supplanting my 

 Shorthorn bulls with Whitefaces, and last year 

 alone I disposed of over 200 head of the aris- 

 tocratic "red, white and roans," and hope to 

 never own another. The Herefords are good 

 enough for me, either on the broad prairie 

 ranges, in our tame pastures, or in the feed 

 yard. 



Bv the wav, I will state that I fed a car load 

 of Shorthorn bulls last winter, including one 



