48 A HISTORY OP HEREFORD CATTLE 



local interest in good breeding as the Smithfield did 

 in drawing outside attention to the feeding quality 

 of the steers. Moreover, the utility of the breed as 

 a beef-making proposition — as distinguished from 

 its value in the yoke — ^was now rapidly becoming 

 recognized, one of the stated objects of the local 

 society being "to carry the breed of cattle and sheep 

 as to fleece and carcass to the greatest point of per- 

 fection." 



The men who were developing the race at this 

 point may or may not have been generally guided 

 in their work of improvement by the Bakewell ex- 

 periments with the Longhorn cattle and Leicester 

 sheep, out of which the theory of close breeding as 

 a means of fixing a type had grown. But in view of 

 the sensation that had been created by the Dishley 

 discoveries throughout the entire kingdom, it is 

 more than likely that the first great improvers of 

 the Hereford made their earliest advance through 

 the adoption of methods similar to those followed 

 by the CoUings, Mr. Bates and other successful 

 manipulators of the Shorthorn type. At any rate, 

 credit has always been given to Benjamin Tomkins, 

 the younger, as one of the founders of the modern 

 Hereford, and his system was clearly one of blood 

 concentration. 



Benjamin Tomkiiis. — ^Among those generally set 

 down as the fathers of the nineteenth century Here- 

 fords, seniority is usually accorded to Benjamin 

 Tomkins. For at least two generations there had 

 been a valuable "breed" maintained by the family. 



