320 A HISTORY OP HEREFORD CATTLE 



medals, and in 1867 the gold medal at Buffalo for 

 best herd of Herefords. 



A Strong Personality .^Eegarding Mr. Stone's 

 personal characteristics the author is fortunate in 

 possessing a pen-picture drawn some years ago by 

 another one of Ontario's immortals, tiie late Eich- 

 ard Gibson, in the course of a personal letter from 

 which the following passage is taken : 



"I knew Mr. Stone intimately. He was a typical 

 English yeoman, stoutly built, with all the at- 

 tributes of his fellows in England, and an aggres- 

 sive color in his cheeks, that good, healthy, ruddy 

 bronze that bespoke health and happiness. He was 

 a storekeeper as well as a farmer, and his wealth 

 accumulated. As Strafford [a famous old-time Eng- 

 lish Shorthorn auctioneer — ^Ed.] would say when 

 a specimen of one of his favorite families passed 

 before him in the salering, 'he was well got and well 

 descended.' A cousin of his was sheriff of his coun- 

 ty and his eldest son was a prominent barrister in 

 London, England. His farming was to him a pleas- 

 ure, until age and cares passed a veil upon his 

 work. He sold the farm to the Ontario Govern- 

 ment, and upon his superstructure the present On- 

 tario College of Agriculture now lives and moves 

 and turns out professors annually, a sure sign of 

 the fitness of the soil. 



"As to his Herefords: For years he won every- 

 thing before him. I remember a bull, I think Sir 

 Charles. I reported him as being fit to compete 

 with a ring of all Shorthorns of any age, that is, as 

 regards symmetry and smoothness of flesh, but he 

 was not a typical Hereford of that day. His horns 

 were short and turned in, a la Shorthorn. However, 

 he was a great butcher's fancy. The herd was xm- 



