A DEDICATION. 



The story of how the Herefords leaped into their 

 American fame little more than a quarter of a cen- 

 tury ago constitutes one of the most interesting 

 chapters in the annals of our agriculture. Bred and 

 prized as they had been for generations in their 

 native land, the West of England; introduced as 

 they had been in a small way and at an early day 

 in various eastern and middle states, with indiffer- 

 ent success; their invasion of the combelt in the 

 "seventies"; the antagonism they encountered at 

 the hands of "vested interests"; their final con- 

 quest of the range; in brief, the winning of their 

 way by sheer force of demonstrated merit into the 

 affections of all admirers of good cattle in the New 

 World forms the subject of a theme that must ap- 

 peal to every student of the history of animal hus- 

 bandry. 



Those who conducted this successful incursion 

 into a field once thought to be fully and satisfac- 

 torily occupied were men of force and enterprise 

 and character. It was the good fortune of the 

 writer to know most of them. Much has already 

 been written of their work. Possibly there is little 

 real occasion for me to undertake to add to what 

 has already been recorded, but the ipemory of de- 



