736 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



Mr. Jastro states that while he thinks there is a 

 tendency towards some loss of size where the Here- 

 ford cross is repeated during a. succession of years 

 his remedy for this is to turn out Shorthorn bulls 

 every third or fourth year, so that cows will get 

 back to their original size. He adds: "Our best 

 success is in crossing a Hereford bull with cows well 

 bred up in Shorthorn blood." 



Mr. Mackey, who was at one time manager of the 

 Eancho Del Paso, commonly known as the "Haggin 

 Grant," and famous for its Thoroughbred horses, 

 at one time introduced Hereford cattle which later 

 found their way to Bakersfield and were metged 

 into the Stockdale herd when the grant was sold. 



The Chowchilla Herd.— In April, 1882, Mr. John 

 Clay, of Clay, Eobinson & Co., purchased the Chow- 

 chilla Ranch, comprising 116,000 acres of land and 

 the herd of 12,000 head of cattle, for a Scotch syn- 

 dicate. Mr. Clay had visited California some years 

 prior to that date. He states that at the time of his 

 first visit the cattle of California were still strong 

 in Spanish blood — a big, bony, stretchy lot, much 

 heavier than Texas cattle of the same ages. These 

 responded rapidly to the Shorthorn cross. Miller 

 & Lux had brought down to their ranches a lot of 

 Oregon cows which were coarse-boned, heavily- 

 built Shorthorn types upon which they had used 

 Devon bulls in the hope of acquiring more quality. 

 About this time Mr. Clay bought two carloads of 

 bulls by Devon sires and from ordinary Oregon 

 cows from this firm. They were put into the "Sev- 



