FIRST AMEBICAN IMPORTATIONS 279 



not make specifically for improvement in respect to 

 the special business of beef-making. Most of the 

 Shorthorns of that period in the United States were 

 excellent general purpose cattle, combining scale 

 with level lines, fine style and good dairy quality, 

 but the thick-fleshed type that had been developed 

 so successfully by the Messrs. Booth at Warlaby, 

 Killerby and Studley had not then been introduced. 



Erastus Corning Interested. — ^As a buyer of 

 steers for market, Mr. Sotham claimed, and doubt- 

 less with reason, that the Shdrthoms as bred in the 

 east at that time were deficient in flesh and feeding 

 qualities as compared with Herefords. He had little 

 or no capital at his disposal, but determined never- 

 theless to find some way to finance an importation, 

 and succeeded after vicissitudes narrated by him- 

 self. Hon. Erastus Coming became chief owner of 

 a lot of twenty-two head selected by Mr. Sotham in 

 England and landed at New York in 1840. 



Sotham 's own story of this importation is as fol- 

 lows : 



"In the fall of 1839 I had just finished buying 

 nearly 4,000 head of cattle in droves for Mr. Ebe- 

 nezer Wilson as they were making their way from 

 the west to Albany. I paid a portion down on each 

 drove to be then delivered at the price stated per 

 hundred at his slaughter house for barreling pur- 

 poses. After contracting for many droves I re- 

 turned to Albany, and as the droves came in we 

 selected some of the best and I took them to Bull's 

 Head, N. Y., for market. Mr. Wilson barreled a 

 little over 6,000 head that season. The whole of his 



